Eugene-Louis Boudin (1824-1898)

Young Eugene met painters like Millet in his father’s picture framing store. At the age of 22 he began to pain full time and traveled initially to Paris and then through Flanders. He was profoundly influenced by the Dutch 17^th century masters. His success was assured when his own painting was accepted for exhibit in prestigious Paris Salon of 1859.

Boudin befriended Claude Monet at the age of 18 and advised the young caricaturist to paint landscapes. In 1874, Boudin joined his plein aire (outdoor painting) peers in the first exhibition of artists who sought to represent the “play of light” with clear unmixed color and visible brush strokes: the impressionists.

Eugene-Louis Boudin had been born the son of a harbor pilot at Honflueru and had worked several years from the age of 10 aboard a local steamboat. The painter was praised at the end of his life by the great painter Coro as the “master of the sky.”