Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Boudin's Hometown

July 1, 2010 by Marion Maneker

NPR’s Morning Edition visits Honfleur and the Eugene Boudin museum in the artist’s hometown:

[audio:http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Morning-Edition-on-Boudin.mp3|titles=Morning Edition on Boudin]

Eugene Boudin had a grand time painting all this beach activity. So did others — if the British, then the French upperclasses were going to hit the beaches, artists would go, too, to paint their portraits, do seascapes and make some money under the sunny-cloudy Norman skies. Boudin urged his young friend Claude Monet to join them at seaside. Monet was 15 years younger and making a reputation in Paris, drawing caricatures in charcoal.

Boudin thought Monet could do more.

“He said, ‘Come on, Claude — your caricatures are fun, but it’s not real art,’ ” says Aussenac. “‘I mean art; I mean painting, Claude, painting!‘ ”

Boudin kept nagging his young friend. Monet had grown up in Le Havre, and Boudin wanted to get him back to Normandy. “‘Come over,'” he urged him, by Aussenac’s account. “‘I want to show you Honfleur; I want you to see the light.’ ”

There was that amazing light — the rich blue skies, dotted with scudding, big-bellied clouds that shifted the sunlight, making fields and rocks broody, then brilliant, in a flash. Monet capitulated, came to Honfleur, and he and Boudin painted side by side, outside, using portable easels and paint in tubes.

“And suddenly, suddenly, Claude Monet just understood what his friend had been telling him about,” says Aussenac. “He understood. He said afterward that it was just like a curtain that [had opened] in front of his eyes. He understood what his life was about, and what painting was about.”

Eugene Boudin: The Man Who Inspired Monet (NPR/Morning Edition)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • New York Photography Sales = $17.9mNew York Photography Sales = $17.9m
  • Artelligence for May 17, 2018Artelligence for May 17, 2018
  • The Wallace Collection Enters the Global ConversationThe Wallace Collection Enters the Global Conversation
  • New Perspectives on Old Masters at TEFAFNew Perspectives on Old Masters at TEFAF
  • Vernissage TV: Art Basel 40Vernissage TV: Art Basel 40
  • Fewer Forced Sellers Than Expected Last YearFewer Forced Sellers Than Expected Last Year

Filed Under: Artists Tagged With: Eugene Boudin

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...