Eugène Boudin, the father of Impressionism: a private collection

He had already been exhibiting his work for several years, so it was with a certain humour tinged with modesty that Eugène Boudin was surprised when critical and financial success deigned to take an interest in him: "What is surprising is that I had the effect of a revelation. I was swimming in the fog and here I am, out in the light [1]". The monographic exhibition organised by Durand-Ruel in 1883 was widely acclaimed and the painter was delighted with the number of articles - at least forty-eight! - which were devoted to him; the height of glory: "There’s even a caricature. It’s an old woman coming out of church looking at the ’Eugène Boudin Exhibition’. Caption: "Une exposition de Boudin en plein carême, les v’la bien les mœurs de la République" [2]" (ill. 1).

Boudin has not returned to the mists of time since, he is by no means an unknown painter, regularly highlighted by museums in France and abroad [3] (see article), who is also often present in the (too?) many exhibitions devoted to the Impressionists. It is an injustice, moreover, to reduce him to the role of precursor, condemned to being no more than a stepping stone for Monet, just as Cimabue is linked for eternity to Giotto, whose talent he discovered [4]. Boudin, however, was wary of Impressionism, whose touch could, in his opinion, lead to a form of "negligence". And although he took part in the first exhibition in 1874, the result was hardly convincing for him, who had incurred expenses and did not sell a single work. Like Manet, he preferred to exhibit at the Salon, which he did from 1859 to 1890, winning a third-class medal for La Meuse, à Rotterdam, then second-class medals for Entry and Exit. At the request of Puvis de Chavannes, he eventually left the competition to join the dissident Société des Beaux-Arts.
Boudin had not returned to the mists of time, far from…