Eugène Boudin

Eugène Boudin was a French painter often counted among the first artists to work outdoors, directly in front of his subject, rather than finishing everything back in the studio. Born in 1824 in Honfleur on the Normandy coast, he grew up around boats and harbors, and the sea stayed with him for life. He had a particular love for skies, filling his canvases with big, changing cloudscapes over beaches and ports.

His greatest gift to art history may be a young man he mentored. Boudin encouraged a teenage Claude Monet to set aside his caricatures and paint outside, advice that helped set Impressionism in motion. Boudin himself showed work in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, though his own style stayed a little more traditional than that of his famous student. His breezy beach scenes remain his most collected works.