Beach Scene at Trouville

A breezy afternoon unfolds along the coast of Normandy in this scene by Eugène Boudin. Painted in 1870, it shows the fashionable beach at Trouville, a seaside resort where well-off Parisians came to escape the summer heat of the city. Ladies in wide skirts and gentlemen in dark coats settle into their chairs on the sand, parasols raised against the sun, while a couple of small dogs wander among them. Beyond the crowd, sailboats drift across the water and a steamship leaves a faint smudge of smoke on the horizon.

The sky is really where Boudin shows his talent. Nearly half the canvas is filled with soft, moving clouds and pale light, brushed on quickly and loosely. His friends called him "the king of skies," and it is easy to understand the nickname here. That fresh, airy way of painting was an early step toward Impressionism, and Boudin himself played a part in that story. He mentored a young Claude Monet and pushed him to paint outdoors from nature, a piece of advice that helped shape a whole movement.

So although the beachgoers seem to be the point of the picture, the true subject floats above them. Boudin knew the changing moods of sea and sky as well as anyone in his day, and this small coastal scene is really a study of open air and light.