Description
In 1873, Boudin made his first visit to the important port city of Bordeaux as a guest of the resident art collector Arthur Bourges. Between 1874 and 1876, Boudin made paintings of the city's harbor and docks. This was an especially stimulating time in Boudin's career, as he was invited to exhibit in 1874 with the newly-founded Société anonyme des artistes, soon to be known as the Impressionists. As in many of his views, Boudin concentrated here on the quais or working docks where goods were loaded and unloaded and sailors left in small dinghies for the larger vessels on which they worked. The low horizon line relegates much of the canvas to pure sky, but the soaring vertical and diagonal forms of the masts complement this horizontal thrust and open space. Many contemporaries greatly admired Boudin's ability to paint skies. Here, one can see the way in which he brushed on a tan color, then went over it, probably while it was still wet, with a thin but opaque application of white, to create a fresh, airy quality. For the darker areas representing water, Boudin laid in an olive-green tone.
Provenance
(Boudin sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Feb. 28, 1877, no. 30) 1; Aurélien Scholl [1833-1902], Paris 1; (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 17, 1921 (no. 52), probably sold to Galerie Allard & Noël); (Probably Galerie Allard & Noël, Paris) 1; (E. J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam) 1; Private collection, Washington, D.C., to Wildenstein & Co.; (Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold to Emily Blossom); Emily Blossom [1913-1991], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Accession Number
1986.73
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Framed: 80.5 x 115.5 x 10 cm (31 11/16 x 45 1/2 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 54.7 x 89.5 cm (21 9/16 x 35 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund and Gift of Mrs. Dudley S. Blossom Jr.
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
View of Bordeaux, from the Quai des Chartrons, painted in 1874, is one of Boudin most accomplished urban views and a painting that demonstrates his ability to apply the atmospheric techniques he developed on the Normandy coast to the quite different environment of a major French city. The quayside of Bordeaux, with its elegant 18th-century facades and its bustling river traffic, provides a subject of extraordinary urbanity.
Boudin visited Bordeaux in 1874 and produced a number of views of the city quays, its bridge, and its harbor. These works demonstrate the range of his art, extending from the beaches of Normandy to the cities of southwestern France without sacrificing the atmospheric unity that is his signature.
The painting most impressive feature is its treatment of the Garonne River, which reflects the facades of the quayside buildings and the sky above in a shimmering, broken pattern. Boudin renders these reflections with the same freedom and directness he brought to the sea, creating a surface of extraordinary luminosity that transforms the urban quay into a maritime subject.
The painting combination of urban architecture and river atmosphere creates a visual experience of extraordinary sophistication. The 18th-century facades, rendered with Boudin characteristic brevity, provide a structural framework for the atmospheric effects that are the painting true subject: the quality of light that falls across a city on a fine day, reflected in the river that runs through it.
Cultural Impact
Boudin Bordeaux paintings documented one of the most elegant cities in France and demonstrated that his atmospheric techniques could address the urban environment as successfully as the coastal landscape. His treatment of the city quay as a subject for atmospheric painting influenced the development of urban landscape in French art.
Why It Matters
View of Bordeaux captures Boudin at his most urban and most atmospheric: a city of elegant facades reflected in a river of shimmering light. The Garonne, flowing past the Quai des Chartrons, connects the city to the sea - and Boudin, who spent his life painting the coast, here discovers that every river is ultimately a branch of the ocean.
