Artist of the week
Parasols, sand and big skies
Eugène Boudin
Eugène Boudin, the French painter of beaches and skies, from 1863 to 1892. At Trouville a horse pulls a grey bathing cabin into the shallows while a bearded man and a black dog stand nearby, and at Dieppe women in wide blue and white skirts gather under grey clouds. Princess Metternich walks the sand in white over a red underskirt, a crowd on wooden chairs faces the sunset, a village and its red-brown sails double in a still river, and red roofs line a deep blue bay at Beaulieu.
As a puzzle
Start with the people, where the colour gathers: black coats, blue skirts, the children in red at sunset, the grey bathing cabin and its horse. Then follow the line where sand meets sea, and the roofs and red-brown sails of the village. The skies and the water are the slow part: pale cream at Trouville, heavy grey over the village, blue over blue at Beaulieu. The sunset crowd, Dieppe and the village take a moderate count; keep Princess Metternich low.
A good size here: 50–200 pieces.
Also filed under Impressionism
Subjects here: The SeaLandscapesRivers and LakesNightTowns and CitiesEveryday Life
6 pictures, pick one to build
