Approaching Storm

Eugène Boudin's "Approaching Storm" (1864) is an oil on cradled panel that captures the dramatic atmosphere of an oncoming storm over the sea. Boudin (1824–1898) was a French landscape painter who specialized in marine subjects and who is remembered as one of the precursors of Impressionism. He was the first French painter to paint the sky and sea directly from nature, working outdoors to capture the transient effects of light and weather. This painting shows the sky darkening as a storm approaches, the sea rising in response, the light fading from the scene. Boudin's handling is rapid and expressive, the paint applied in strokes that convey the movement of clouds and waves. The cradled panel provides a stable support that allowed Boudin to work outdoors. Boudin was a mentor to the young Claude Monet, who credited Boudin with opening his eyes to the importance of painting directly from nature. This painting, created in the same year that Boudin participated in the first Salon des Refusés, shows him at the height of his powers as a painter of the sea and sky.

Boudin was a crucial precursor to Impressionism, pioneering the practice of plein-air painting and training his eye to capture the transient effects of weather and light that would become the movement's central concern.

This dramatic storm scene captures Boudin's genius for atmospheric effects, the darkening sky and rising sea rendered with the rapid, expressive touch that made him the teacher of Monet and the precursor of Impressionism.