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Port of Le Havre
Eugène Louis Boudin (French, 1824–1898)
about 1886
Object Place: France
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
39.7 x 54.3 cm (15 5/8 x 21 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Miss Elizabeth Howard Bartol
Accession NumberRES.27.90
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
According to the poet Charles Baudelaire, Boudin’s remarkable skills of observation make it possible for us to “divine there the season, the hour, the wind. I don’t exaggerate!” His exactitude in depicting particular conditions of light, weather, and atmosphere is readily apparent in this view of the bustling harbor of Le Havre, a prominent port city on the English Channel. A three-masted ship dominates the foreground, its French flag flying proudly in the breeze, as small rowboats bring passengers to and from the large ships anchored in deeper water.
InscriptionsLower right: E Boudin
ProvenanceSeptember 28, 1894, sold by Allard et Nöel, Paris, to M. Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. 7704); March 17, 1898, sold by Knoedler to J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston [see note 1]. Until 1927, Elizabeth Howard Bartol (b. 1842 - d. 1927), Boston [see note 2]; 1927, bequest of Bartol to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 8, 1927)
NOTES:
[1] This information comes from a letter from Lelia Wittler of Knoedler to Charles C. Cunningham of the MFA (February 3, 1940; in MFA curatorial file). Also see the Getty Provenance Index, M. Knoedler and Co. Records, PI record no. K-4188 (stock book 4, no. 7704, p. 194).
[2] It is not known how or when Miss Bartol acquired this painting. In a letter from her cousin, John W. Bartol, to Charles C. Cunningham of the MFA (May 2, 1940) she is said to have acquired her collection of paintings "partly by inheritance and partly by purchase" and that there was no paperwork documenting these transactions.
NOTES:
[1] This information comes from a letter from Lelia Wittler of Knoedler to Charles C. Cunningham of the MFA (February 3, 1940; in MFA curatorial file). Also see the Getty Provenance Index, M. Knoedler and Co. Records, PI record no. K-4188 (stock book 4, no. 7704, p. 194).
[2] It is not known how or when Miss Bartol acquired this painting. In a letter from her cousin, John W. Bartol, to Charles C. Cunningham of the MFA (May 2, 1940) she is said to have acquired her collection of paintings "partly by inheritance and partly by purchase" and that there was no paperwork documenting these transactions.