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EUGÈNE BOUDIN , HONFLEUR, 1824 – DEAUVILLE, 1898 Le Vieux Port de Touques Oil on canvas 45 x 65 cm Only a few rare clouds remain in this trailing sky, giving way to a beautiful azure that takes up more than half of the painting. This sky is also reflected in the Touques River, which flows in the lower part of the composition. Between the two lies the old port of Touques, whose houses crowd the river's edge to be reflected in turn, multiplied and diluted. The alignment of pointed gables intermingles its tile and slate roofs, offering a contrasting palette of whites, red ochres and anthracite. Two bell towers punctuate this horizon, in response to the first pointed gable on the left. Beyond, the village is extended by green vegetation. Finally, on the shore, silhouettes are busy. We can make out a few boats moored along a quay, which bear witness to the village's port activity. The port is painted from the opposite bank, where we are standing, with the bank in the foreground on the left. Its truncated representation, depicted at an angle, accentuates the perspective and adds to the effect of distance. Once again, Boudin magnifies this Norman nature that he never tires of representing, offering us each time a new light, a new emotion. In 1859, he exhibited his first painting at the Salon where he was noticed by Baudelaire. He met Courbet, Jongkind and then Monet, whom he introduced to plein-air painting. As he gained notoriety, he devoted himself to more mundane subjects, accompanying the birth of the first seaside resorts, Deauville, Trouville but also Juan-les-Pins. In 1874, he took part in the first Impressionist exhibition at Nadar's. Beyond the scenes of daily life, sketched with vivacity and even picturesqueness, his landscapes are organised with precision according to the laws of perspective and according to a framing influenced by the nascent photography. The characters, secondary or even anecdotal, are inscribed in a perspectival space where the eye is invited to travel over vast expanses. But it is above all his treatment of light that will earn him the recognition of his peers, particularly for his skies. Corot, his elder, gave him the laudatory title of 'king of the skies' when Baudelaire awarded him that of 'painter of meteorological beauties'. Robert Schmit, 'Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898', vol. III, Paris, 1973, no. 2702. Signatur: Signed and dated lower left 'E. Boudin 90'.