Eugine Louis Boudin was born on July 2, 1824 and grew in the Normandy port of Honfleur in France. Boudin’s father ran a ferryboat between Honfleur and Le Havre, which is a big English Channel port. As a child, Boudin worked on his father’s boat. When one day he fell off the boat and was fortunately rescued by another seaman, his mother admitted him to school. His teacher noticed his artistic talent and prodded him to develop that talent. Since he grew up around the ocean watching ships and activities on the beaches and the coastline, it helped him to shape up as a marine painter.

Moved to Le Havre In France

Eugene Louis Boudin was one of the famous French landscape painters. He is best known for painting affluent holidaymakers on the beaches of Trouville. Boudin’s family moved from Trouville, France to Le Havre in 1835 where his father started his business as a stationer and frame maker. Boudin worked in a framing store as an assistant and, thereafter, he opened his own framing shop before taking up painting as a profession. He came into contact with a few artists working in the area who exhibited the paintings of Constant Troyon, Jean-Francois Millet and Thomas Couture and others. These artists became a source of inspiration for starting an artistic career.

He Liked Outdoor Painting

Boudin was not only famous for painting outdoors himself but he also cast his influence on the budding young generation of painters to follow that path. In 1858, he met Claude Monet, who was only 18 years of age, who would later grow to be another great painter of that era. Boudin began by painting the sea in 1853. He preferred to paint outdoors as he could experience the effects of light and colors of the sky and that of the ocean.

Useful Association With Jongkind, Monet and Boudelaire

When Boudin met Johan Jongkind, a Dutch Painter, who had made his mark in French artistic circles, he received advice from his new friend to paint outdoors. In 1859, Boudin came into contact with Charles Baudelaire who was the first art critic to bring Boudin’s talent to public attention during his debut at the 1859 Salon. Boudin met Monet, who was then18 years younger than him, in 1857. They spent several months working together in Boudin’s studio. They remained life-long friends and Monet paid handsome tribute to Boudin for his early influence.

Bouding, ‘en plein air’ specialist

Boudin persuaded Monet to paint outdoors or ‘en plein air’ and become a landscape painter. Baudin ignited in him a love for bright hues and the play of light on water. Monet was greatly influenced by Boudin’s style of painting and this became evident in Monet’s impressionist paintings. Boudin was basically a marine painter and was an expert in painting all that moves on the sea and exists along the seashores. Hence, Carot called him the ‘King of the Skies’. Boudin was instrumental, to a large extent, in making painting ‘en plein air’ a hallmark of the impressionist movement.

Painting Beach Activities

At the age of 22, Boudin forsook the work of commerce and started painting full-time. He earned a scholarship in 1850 which enabled him to move to Paris. He enrolled as a student in the studio of Eugene Isabey at Louvre and worked as a copyist. During the mid-1800s, it is said that ‘fainting’ had taken the form of an epidemic among England’s noble and wealthy women. Doctors prescribed sea-bathing sessions as remedies, among others. These upper-class women, both the British and the French, started swarming these beaches in their bathing costumes and with their well-built male aides. Eugene Boudin, like many other painters, had a grand time painting these beach activities. He also made money by painting the portraits of the noble and the wealthy on the beaches.

Boudin to Monet, ‘Come, see the light’

Boudin said to Monet, who was 15 years younger than him and who was very good at caricatures in charcoal, that though caricatures were fun, they were not real art. He urged Monet to take to painting as real art. Claude kept nagging Monet, who had grown up in Le Havre, to come to Honfleur and ‘see the light’ until Monet understood what his elder friend was saying. Thus, Monet made his first impressionist painting by studying and making use of the effects of light on paintings. Claude Monet expressed his gratitude to Eugene Boudin by stating that ‘if he had become a painter, it was entirely due to Eugene Boudin’.

Overshadowed by Monet, His Disciple

What a memorable bond of love and gratitude between the teacher and the student! The two friends spent many hours together painting seascapes and the port at Le Havre. Bouldin’s paintings featuring the ocean waters, the skies and the description of the boats and ships on the sea waters with great accuracy are his artistic strengths. Experts are of the opinion that even cameras can hardly capture the nuances of skies painted by him with as much accuracy. However, experts say that Boulding was not as popular as Monet was at that period of time.

Honour, Medals and Ill-health

Boudin’s reputation and financial stability enabled him to travel extensively to many important cities in Europe in the 1870s. He continued to exhibit at the Paris Salons and received several medals there. He was also a recipient of a gold medal at the 1989 Exposition Universelle. In 1892, Boudin was made a knight of the Legion d’honneur. He returned to the south of France late in his life due to ill-health. When he realized that the chances of relief from ill-health was becoming less, he returned to his home at Deauville, hoping to die within the sight of his favourite Channel waters and Channel skies. He died on August 8, 1898.

Monet’s Financial Hardships

While Bouldin received ample support from his parents, Monet was not fortunate enough in this regard. Though Monet’s mother lent her support to him in the path of his liking chosen by him, his father did not. As his father was in the shipping business, he wanted Monet to follow him in his footsteps. Further, after the death of Monet’s mother, his widowed father cut Monet off financially completely. In addition to Monet’s monetary woes, the conservative policies adopted by the then French art establishment made it difficult for the artists like Monet and other artists with new ideas to exhibit their paintings. When Monet’s financial difficulties aggregated, Monet tried unsuccessfully to drown himself in the Seine River.

Depression and Destruction of Paintings

Monet suffered from bouts of depression throughout the rest of his life. Luckily, one of Monet’s patrons came forward to support him financially. In addition to this, Monet himself was able to concentrate more and more on his painting in the latter half of the 1880s. Despite his financial success during the later years of the 1880s and 1890s, he continued to suffer from depression and a lack of confidence in himself. After destroying upwards of 500 of his paintings, he wrote to one of his friends saying that his life was a failure and all that was left for him was to destroy his paintings. However, he did not follow up with what he said in the fits of depression.

Memorable Paintings of Eugene Boudin

Some of the memorable paintings of Boudin are 1) Beach at Trouville, 2) a number of Beach Scenes, Trouville, 3) Brussels Harbour, 4) Deauville Harbour 5) Laundresses by a Stream, 6) L’Hopital-Camfrout, Brittany, 7) The Beach at Tourgeville-les-Sablons, 8) The Entrance to Trouville Harbour