Accession Number
1986/2.79

Title
St. Catherine's Market at Honfleur

Artist(s)
Eugène Boudin

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
circa 1890

Medium & Support
oil on panel

Dimensions
12 11/16 in x 15 15/16 in (32.23 cm x 40.48 cm);17 3/4 in x 20 7/8 in x 2 in (45.08 cm x 53.02 cm x 5.08 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Gilbert M. Frimet

Label copy
The thin, almost transparent, glazes and flat, broad strokes of multifarious colors constituting this oil sketch of the St. Catherine Market in Honfleur faithfully impart Boudin’s belief in painting directly from nature. As he is reported to have once told his pupil Claude Monet, "three brush strokes painted from nature are worth more than two days work at the easel." In "Market at Honfleur (Le Marché Sainte Catherine à Honfleur)," one finds a studied contrast to the "Marché aux poissons." While both function as painted sketches, they exemplify different degrees of finish. The unresolved, highly spontaneous nature of this sketch, and the tactile quality of its painted surface, achieve the vivacity of "plein-air" ("open air") painting that Boudin sought. He revealed his affinity to plein-air painting when he said, "Everything that is painted directly on the spot always has a strength, a power, a vividness of touch that one doesn’t find again in the studio."
(C. McNamara, 18th-19th Century Gallery installation, early 1999)

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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