eugène boudin - Musée Jacquemart

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CONTENT
Page 3
Press release
Page 4
A « Normandie Impressionniste » approved exhibition
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Introduction by Bruno Monnier, CEO of Culturespaces
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Crédit du Nord, patron of the exhibition
Page 7
Tour of the exhibition
Page 12
Biography of Eugène Boudin
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The curatorial team
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The scenography
Page 15
Visitor aids
Page 16
Publications
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Media partners of the exhibition
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Culturespaces, producer and director of the exhibition
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The Jacquemart-André Museum
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Visuals available for the press
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Practical information
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Musée Jacquemart-André
Paris
EUGÈNE BOUDIN
Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris
From March 22nd to July 22nd, 2013
The Jacquemart-André Museum is organising the first parisian retrospective since the end of the 19th
century devoted to the painter Eugène Boudin. With the participation of major international museums,
this gathering of some sixty paintings, watercolours, and drawings will introduce: "Eugène Boudin“.
Eugène Boudin, “King of the skies"
Known for his seascapes and beach scenes, Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) was one of the first French artists to
take his easel outside the studio to paint landscapes. In his numerous paintings, he especially focused on the
rendering of elements and atmospheric effects. As such, he was one of the initiators of a renewed view of
nature, and thus preceded the impressionists in this approach, not to mention his friend Claude Monet,
who wrote late in life: "I owe everything to Boudin."
Over the years, his palette became brighter and his touch lighter for a better rendition of reflections from the
sky and water. From Normandy to Venice, which he discovered in his latter years, along with the beaches in
the North, Brittany, and the South, he painted landscapes in movement in a subtle harmony of coloured
greys. A genuine “King of the skies," Eugène Boudin perfected the art of transcribing such changing elements
as light, clouds, and waves.
General director of the exhibition Laurent Manœuvre is gathering nearly sixty paintings, watercolours, and
drawings, thanks to loans from major international museums, portraying Eugène Boudin in his quest for light,
from Honfleur to Venice, and paying a wonderful tribute to this artist so closely associated with the sea and
its seascapes.
An unprecedented exhibition with exceptional art on loan
Boudin's work very quickly attracted the interest of American art lovers. From the 1880’s, he was amongst
the painters presented in the USA by the dealer Durand-Ruel. As a result, North American museums now
hold a bounty of works by the artist, the likes of which are not to be found in any other public collections in
Europe. Thanks to loans provided namely by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Museum
of Fine Arts Boston, some of his works will be shown for the first time in France since they were purchased
by avant-garde American art aficionados.
For this exhibition, the Jacquemart-André Museum also benefited from the help of the Museo ThyssenBornemisza, the Québec National Fine Arts Museum, and naturally the support of the André Malraux
Modern Art Museum in Le Havre, and the Eugène Boudin Museum in Honfleur, which have the largest
collection of works by the artist in France.
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EUGÈNE BOUDIN,
A « NORMANDIE IMPRESSIONNISTE » APPROVED EXHIBITION
The success of the first edition of Normandie Impressionniste was such that it became essential to repeat
the association of the most popular modern artistic movement with the territory where it blossomed. With
more than one million spectators, Normandy was in festive mood, with open-air dance halls, picnics,
exhibitions that attracted international attention. The theme of water chosen for this second edition arose
from the fascination the great masters had for the sea and rivers.
Cinema, music, theatre, symposia, workshops, festivities and modern and contemporary art exhibitions will
animate the five months of the festival, between 27 April and 29 September 2013, across the two regions
and five departments of Normandy, with the support of the event's founding members, institutional
partners and financiers.
This resolutely contemporary programme will gain its full import with the involvement of students and
apprentices in the recreational and innovative professional projects planned.
With its 600 projects centred on Impressionism, we wish you all an excellent festival!
Pierre Bergé
President of the Festival Normandie Impressionniste
Laurent Fabius
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the festival
Jérôme Clément
Chief Commissioner of Normandie Impressionniste
Erik Orsenna
President of the Scientific Committee
www.normandie-impressionniste.fr
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INTRODUCTION BY BRUNO MONNIER
President and CEO at Culturespaces
After paying homage to the Caillebotte brothers in 2011, I would like to pay tribute for the first time in
Paris to another painter and contemporary of Nélie Jacquemart and Edouard André: Eugène Boudin.
This exhibition enables the public to follow step-by-step the highly personal development of an artist at
the turning point of two eras. From the outset of his career, Eugène Boudin abandoned the precepts of
the romantic generation and, year after year, established the foundations of the future Impressionist
revolution.
For over a century, there have been no major exhibitions in Paris showing the eminently poetic work of
this modest person, an indefatigable worker, unperturbed by fashions, who, throughout his life, had but
one aim: to paint the simple happiness of a fleeting moment – a walk by the water, a deserted beach
enshrouded in sunlight or the departure of a three-master heading into the distance. To take up the
challenge of presenting the intimate, artistic career of Eugène Boudin, Culturespaces has brought
together works from private and public French, English, Spanish, Canadian, Mexican and American
collections. More than half of them have never been exhibited in France since the artist’s death in 1898.
I would particularly like to thank Laurent Manœuvre, the exhibition curator, who, by his in-depth
knowledge of the artist has succeeded in highlighting the veritable uniqueness of Boudin and
underscoring his influence over many writers and artists such as Baudelaire and Monet.
I therefore sincerely hope that, for all our visitors, this exhibition will provide an opportunity for an
encounter. Like the people strolling along the Trouville jetty, they will come across a stocky figure
painting under a sunshade. Leaning over his shoulder they will discover the subtle talent of the
motionless traveller, fascinated by the elusive beauty of fleeting, moving, coloured light because,
although the destinations change (Deauville, Portrieux, Bordeaux, Berck, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Antibes,
Villefranche or Venice), the real journey lies elsewhere: it is in the ever renewed magic of the sky at
sunrise or sunset, the dazzling blue or imminent storm, in the encounter between things eternal and
ephemeral.
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LE CRÉDIT DU NORD
PATRON OF THE EXHIBITION « EUGÈNE BOUDIN »
For the fourth time, Crédit du Nord is pleased to lend its support to Musée Jacquemart-André – on the
occasion of the exhibition devoted to the painter, Eugène Boudin. A painter of elegant beaches and the
seaside, Boudin was above all the “King of Skies”, as Camille Corot called him.
In 1871, the year when the name of “Crédit du Nord” came into being, the artist began to travel and visited
the coastlines of Aquitaine, Brittany and the North, as well as the Riviera. All these regions where our bank
has connections through its regional banks (the Courtois, Kolb, Laydernier, Nuger, Rhône-Alpes, Tarneaud,
Société Marseillaise de Crédit and Crédit du Nord banks) have a charm of their own that offered Boudin
subjects as varied as the lively quayside of Bordeaux harbour, a group of fisherwomen dazzled by sunlight on
Berck beach or the calm, silver sea at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
While Boudin is now considered one of the fathers of Impressionism, like many artists he did not achieve
recognition in his early days. His talent and tenacity nonetheless enabled him to leave us works of
tremendous wealth.
We hope that the support given by Crédit du Nord today with dissemination of the appeal of Boudin’s
paintings will help to enthral the public and, like young Claude Monet, give rise to artistic vocations.
Jean-François Sammarcelli
Chairman of the Board
At Groupe Crédit du Nord
Philippe Aymerich
Chief Executive Officer
at Groupe Crédit du Nord
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TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
Eugène Boudin was one of the great figures in the world of art in the second half of the 19th century. As an
originator of open-air painting, he broke away from academic art and was to become one of the
precursors of the Impressionists. Like them, he favoured subjects linked with nature that stood out by their
translucent beauty.
A friend of Puvis de Chavannes, his paintings were collected by Degas, admired by Monet and Baudelaire
and bought by major American collectors, Eugène Boudin occupies a special place in the art scene of the late
19th century, where the Impressionists played a prominent part. His art features a dogged, enthusiastic
search to capture instant portrayals of nature and light, a search that he was to pursue throughout his life.
Great poetry therefore emerged from the work of one of the very first open-air painters, who initiated the
pictorial approach of variations of light with the first series. To follow in the footsteps of this artist on his
walks and travels, this exhibition is displayed according to both subject and geography, with over sixty of the
works of Boudin, 34 of which have never been shown in France before.
Room 1 – Honfleur, the early years
Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) in no way seemed destined to become a painter. From a modest family in
Normandy, he became a stationer/printer’s assistant before setting up his own stationery shop in Le Havre
in 1844. This is where he met painters such as Millet (1814-1875) and Troyon (1810-1865) and developed a
taste for art. Following the example of his artist customers, he decided to abandon “a steady profession to
take up his brush”. Self-taught, he refined his style and technique by making numerous copies of Dutch and
Venetian masters, in the Louvre in particular.
Born in Honfleur, Boudin grew up in Le Havre and started by painting the region of Normandy where he was
brought up. It was there, under the changing skies of the Seine estuary, that he translated the “simple
beauty of nature” into paint, his approach influenced by Corot and the painters of the Barbizon School
(Honfleur, the Côte de Grâce, Pérez Simón collection, Mexico). Following their example, he worked out of
doors. Rather than represent the landscape in a relatively timeless way, he endeavoured to reproduce both
varied and fleeting light effects on his canvases, which was a completely innovative approach.
During this learning period with its productive discoveries, Boudin not only acquired technical maturity. He
explored a variety of subjects – landscapes, marines, herds of cattle, etc. that he painted with burgeoning
freedom (Vaches dans un pré au bord de la mer (Cows in a Field by the Sea), André Malraux Museum of
Modern Art, Le Havre). In July 1854, he moved into Ferme Saint-Siméon, a well-known, cheap inn, which
happened to be located in a picturesque spot. He urged his friends to join him - Courbet (1819-1877) and
young Monet (1840-1826), who he converted to painting during the summer of 1858.
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In Honfleur, in 1862, he met the Dutch painter, Jongkind (1819-1891) and this was to give rise to a great
friendship between these two marine painters. Influenced by Jongkind’s masterly technique, in his
watercolours in particular, Boudin’s technique reached perfect maturity (Navires dans le port d’Honfleur
(Boats in Honfleur Harbour), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).
Room 2 – Deauville and Trouville, society beaches
Particularly fond of spending time in Trouville, he saw the fast expansion of Deauville, a seaside resort made
popular by the half-brother of Napoleon III, the Duke of Morny. Between 1860 and 1864 the bathing
establishment, racecourse and casino were inaugurated (Concert au casino de Deauville (Concert at Deauville
Casino), National Gallery of Art, Washington) with a number of villas belonging to Second Empire aristocracy.
Deauville became the “kingdom of elegance” so desired by the Duke of Morny.
At a time when sea-bathing was becoming fashionable, Boudin, starting in 1862, was one of the first artists to
represent the bathing beauties on the Normandy beaches (Plage aux environs de Trouville (Beach near
Trouville), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto).
In his beach scenes, disregarding the facility of anecdotic painting, Boudin strove to depict the filmy aspect of
the clothes and the evanescence of the clouds. He also favoured the study of nature and considered his
beaches as a “fairly true reproduction of the world of his era”. Thanks to an extremely allusive technique
such as found in “Plage, marée basse” (Beach Scene at Low Tide) (The Bowes Museum, Durham), Boudin
accurately gave an impression of open air.
To successfully paint these compositions with a host of figures under an immense sky, dominated by vast
expanses of sand, Boudin made a number of real-life sketches. These instant pictures of surprise figures
sketched unbeknown to them are not unlike photography due to their natural poses (Lecture sur la plage
(Reading on the Beach), private collection). He also reflects the blurred atmosphere of the seaside with
subtle pastels, while with watercolour he is able to represent the flickering of colours on the beach.
These paintings, so very unlike official tastes of the time, met with little understanding by the general public.
On the other hand, avant-garde critics and artists soon understood the interest of this new subject and the
way it was depicted by Boudin. Manet, Monet, and even Degas, drew their inspiration from it and Zola
commented “the exquisite originality of the artist, his wide silver grey skies, tiny people, so finely executed
with such a spiritual touch”. In the 20th century, these beach scenes were to become inseparable from the
name of Eugène Boudin, collected by many art lovers, from the world of show business and fashion in
particular (Carry Grant / Jeanne Lanvin).
Room 3 – Amid sky and sea, the “meteorological beauties”
Boudin, who mainly worked from nature, continued to paint studies of the sky, the variations of which were
depicted with the passing hour and season (Le Havre vu depuis Honfleur (Le Havre seen from Honfleur),
private collection). His series of pastels captivated Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) at an early stage, who
discovered them in the painter’s Honfleur studio.
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Boudin and Baudelaire, who used to stay with his mother, Mrs. Aupick, in Honfleur, in fact shared the same
passion for clouds, these ephemeral elements that were an invitation to dream and travel.
In his account of the 1859 Salon (fine art exhibition), Baudelaire described these as “improvised pastel
studies looking towards sea and sky […] so perfectly sketched from the most inconstant, elusive elements
in form and colour -the waves and clouds.” (Rivage et ciel (Shore and sky), private collection). When
Baudelaire, a visionary poet, spoke of these “meteorological beauties”, he wrote with prescience of what
was to be the very substance of Impressionism.
These words by Baudelaire, whose reputation at the time was prone to scandal, helped to ease the way for
Boudin into the hall of fame of artists of the modern era. Degas, a demanding enthusiast of drawing if there
was one, purchased four pastels and two watercolours sold after the death of Boudin.
Rooms 4 and 5 – The “King of Skies”
In the late 1860s, Boudin abandoned beach scenes and, at the request of one of his dealers, turned to
painting marines, a subject already painted by his friend, Jongkind. For ten years or so, Boudin was one of the
only French artists on the marine painting market and achieved considerable success with enthusiasts.
Purchasers of his work included big names in the theatre such as Feydeau or Tourgeniev, as well as authors
such as Dumas (the son). Major collectors of Impressionists, such as Hoschedé and Viau, also bought Boudin
canvases.
In light of the strong competition from Belgian and Dutch painters, he looked for new subjects and made
regular trips in France and to Belgium and Holland. From Brittany to Bordeaux, Rotterdam to Dunkirk, Boudin
discovered new landscapes and depicted the variations of light on the water with admirable success, such as
in “Entrée du port de Trouville / la marée basse” (Trouville Harbour Entrance at Low Tide) (National Gallery,
London). Ever sensitive to the poetry of large sailing ships, he would depict them on a background of
immense skies, full of clouds, in paintings generally reflecting a subtle harmony of greys (“Le Port de
Bordeaux, vue du quai des Chartrons” (Bordeaux Harbour from Chartrons Quay), Musée d’Orsay, Paris).
In his paintings, the sky is always dominant and its infinite variations are rendered with a vibrant, transparent
touch (Marée basse à Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (Low Tide at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue) Pérez Simón collection,
Mexico). Of the works painted on his travels, Boudin would say, “Perhaps people will thus find in my studies
of the sky an aspect of great celestial nature that has never or better been explored by my predecessors.”
Wherever he was, he persisted in working from nature, despite encountering various difficulties (illness, bad
weather, etc.). “It was my ideal to paint huge skies but the painter proposes and the sky opposes. And to
think people believe that painting is easy.”
Boudin made his mark as the unquestioned master of skies. Noticed by Baudelaire and Dumas (son) in the
years from 1850 to 1860, this special talent brought him praise from artists who were connoisseurs of the
subject, such as Courbet or Corot, who was apparently the first to give Boudin the title of “King of Skies”, a
title that Monet still gave him in the Twenties.
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Room 6 – A poetic vision of daily life. Berck, Trouville…
Boudin did not only paint landscapes – he liked to portray a wide variety of subjects discovered on his
travels, which allowed him to experiment with new pictorial approaches. Thus, after representing the
elegant ladies on Normandy beaches, he was taken with figures of everyday life at the seaside.
Of all the places in the North of France, Berck was undoubtedly a favourite with Boudin. He painted every
aspect of it – the beach, the dunes, the chalets and, above all, the life of fishermen. Despite the immensity of
the site, he produced works of remarkable privacy, with a certain visible tenderness (Pêcheuses sur la plage
de Berck (Fisherwomen on Berck Beach), National Gallery of Art, Washington). Berck thus constituted a
counterpoint to Deauville – whether in his society beaches or more private works, Boudin made his mark as a
remarkable painter of figures.
However, not a year went by that Boudin did not spend part of the year in Normandy. His favourite place
was Trouville, which offered him numerous subjects to paint: fishermen, laundresses, markets, etc. While
Boudin liked to “allow [his] painting (…) to have the aspect of a sketch”, the requirements of his customers
led him to produce more finished compositions, as can be seen by comparing two of his Laveuses
(Laundresses) paintings (André Malraux Modern Art Museum, Le Havre and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).
Underlying Boudin’s approach is this search for balance between two apparently incompatible requirements.
His painting results from a compromise between his personal taste and commercial constraints. In his real-life
studies, he manages, however, to reach the threshold of pure painting.
Room 7 – “I owe everything to Boudin” (Monet, 1920). Variations…
By the 1870s, Boudin had begun to paint variations of the same subject. In turn, Monet produced his first
series in 1889. In every place he visited, Boudin painted several variations of nature, varying according to
the time of day, the season or tide, such as in the works devoted to Deauville beach (private collection, City
of Reims Fine Art Museum, Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts). He did this by preference and also to
meet the demands of enthusiasts, who asked him to paint a relatively restricted corpus of subjects. His main
concern was the rendering of light and his paintings reflect his relentless search in this field.
His predilection for the study of light led Boudin to apply the “series” principle at an early stage. This
innovative approach prefigured the one subsequently and systematically applied by Monet, whose series of
Rouen Cathedral painted between 1892 and 1894, was painted well after the studies of the Abbeville
Collegiate Church by Boudin, dating from the 1880s (Valencia Fine Arts and Archaeology Museum and Museo
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). There was a real master/pupil relationship between the two painters and, well
after the death of his predecessor, Monet declared, “I consider Eugène Boudin as my master.”
As a result, the Clocher de Sainte-Catherine (St. Catherine’s Bell Tower) in the Eugène Boudin Museum in
Honfleur was for a long while attributed to Monet, despite its great similarity with the “sister” painting by
Boudin, hanging in the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Comparison of these two works, made possible
by the exhibition, leaves no lingering doubt and shows that, in all likelihood they are both by the hand of
Eugène Boudin.
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Room 8 – The Light of the South, last travels
Very troubled by his wife’s death, in 1889, Boudin went through a morally difficult period. In 1892, he had to
go to the South of France for health reasons. He became captivated by the “light of the skies” on the French
Riviera. His stays there had a liberating effect on his painting. The climate there was mild enough to allow him
to finish his paintings outdoors and, painting from real life, his touch regained all its flexibility. “His eyes
fascinated by [the] intense light” of the South, he painted landscapes where sea and sky seemed to come
together in one immensity (“Antibes. Les Fortifications. Effet de jour“ (Antibes, the Fortifications), Musée
d’Orsay, on loan to the Jules Chéret Museum of Fine Arts, Nice).
He is aware that he is now in full possession of his faculties but knows that his time is running out. So, in
1895, Boudin set off for Venice, in the footsteps of Guardi who he had always admired since he was a young
man, his “prodigious dexterity [and] light touch.” There he discovered an “atmosphere unique in the world,
horizons in shades of pearl”. He was surprised to find “greys of incomparable refinement and lightness” and
developed these shades that gave a particular resonance to his last works (Venise. Le quai des Esclavons le
soir, la Douane et la Salut (Venice – The Esclavons Quay, Customs House and the Salute) Quebec National
Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1896, Boudin wrote, “The trip to Venice was my swan song”. However, in 1897, already very weak, he
travelled to the places he loved, Honfleur and Brittany. He sketched several paintings, such as the view of the
Pointe du Raz (André Malraux Museum of Modern Art, Le Havre), the unusual composition of which is in
homage to a series of paintings by Monet at Belle-Île in 1886. Aware that he was living the end of an era,
Boudin in turn drew inspiration from the works of the latter who, in 1892, wrote to him saying, “I have never
forgotten that you were the first to teach me to see and understand”.
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BIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE BOUDIN
Eugène Boudin was born in Honfleur in 1824. In 1835, his family moved to Le Havre. Eugène worked
for a printer and then a stationer. This gave him the opportunity of meeting artists passing through. At
the age of twenty-two, he gave up shop keeping for painting.
At a time when classicism and romanticism in art were in conflict, he chose a new path, inspired by the
painters of the 1830 school but firmly directed towards outdoor painting and the search to capture
fleeting moments. In fact, he wrote in his notebook that, "three brushstrokes outdoors in nature are
better than two days’ work at your easel". In 1858, he converted Claude Monet, his elder by sixteen
years, to painting. Later Monet was to say, "I owe everything to Boudin". In 1859, he met up with
Baudelaire, who was fascinated with the pastel studies of Boudin and later Courbet.
Preoccupied with the representation of figures in natural light, Boudin invented the beach scene in
1862. This new genre had an undeniable influence on the painters of the future Impressionists
group. From 1870, at the request of art dealers he moved on to paint marines. This home-lover, fond
of the skies of the River Seine estuary, was thus obliged to travel to “vary his products”. To the
Netherlands, Bordeaux, Berck or Venice, the sky and light were his veritable subjects. Corot said of him
that he was the “king of skies". During the 1870s, this attentive study of light led him to introduce the
principle of “series” of paintings and then, over the next decade, he reached the threshold of pure
painting.
Boudin found it hard to have this art of freedom, based on evanescence, accepted by an audience fond
of descriptive painting. In the 1890s, after years of struggling, obstinacy and poverty, he finally
achieved relative recognition. For this artist who said that "independent means not belonging to
established – and “sacred” – schools of painting…”, these tardy honours had less value than the
awareness of the role he had played in the history of painting: "If several of the people I had the
honour of setting on the right track, such as Claude Monet, were swept along further by their own
temperaments, they at least owe me some recognition, as I do to those who advised me and offered me
models to follow.”
In 1898, after a lifetime devoid of adventure but entirely devoted to his art, the old painter, still
dissatisfied and looking to raise his painting to new levels of requirement, passed away in Deauville, in
his modest chalet, looking towards the elements of his lifelong quest – the sea, the sky and light.
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THE CURATORIAL TEAM
The general curator of the "Eugène Boudin" exhibition is Laurent Manœuvre.
Laurent Manœuvre, who specialises in Eugène Boudin and is himself a painter, has devoted several studies
and publications to the artist, including Boudin and Normandy (Herscher, 1991) and Boudin: sky and sea
(Herscher, 1994). He has also participated in the organisation of numerous exhibitions in France and abroad,
amongst which the Eugène Boudin retrospective presented in 1992 at the Eugène Boudin Museum in
Honfleur.
Nicolas Sainte-Fare Garnot, curator at the Jacquemart-André Museum, is also curator of this exhibition.
A word from the general curator of the exhibition
For the first time since 1899, a Parisian institution is organising a retrospective exhibition of paintings,
pastels and watercolours by this pioneer of Impressionism. This unique event is possible thanks to
exceptional loans from the largest American museums.
Eugène Boudin, who was born in Honfleur in 1824 and died in Deauville in 1898, is most known for his
depictions of the high society of the Second Empire on the beaches of Normandy.
If he was the inventor of this genre, he was also a sharp observer of the metamorphoses of the sky. As
one of the first, Baudelaire commented on these "meteorological beauties", which gave rise to the "series"
concept, popularised by Monet.
Nicknamed "King of the skies" by Corot, Boudin travelled across Europe, from Rotterdam to Venice, through
Antwerp, Dunkirk, Berck, Brittany, Bordeaux and the Côte d'Azur. In brilliant studies, he captured the light
which was particular to each place. Monet admits: "I found that I was fascinated by his sketches, which
were the product of that very instant".
Boudin also created ambitious paintings destined for the Salon. He maintained the sketch style in his
paintings, thus producing an impression of the open-air which was very different to his contemporaries'
taste for "finished work". Despite their quality, many of these prestigious works have not been shown on
this side of the Atlantic since 1860-1880. This will therefore be a real discovery for the French general
public.
Laurent Manœuvre
Chef du Bureau de la diffusion numérique des collections
Direction générale des patrimoines
Service des musées de France
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THE SCENOGRAPHY
Hubert le Gall has designed a bright and refined setting for the artworks of Eugène Boudin. This
scenography reminds of the elegant atmosphere of the beach scenes that Eugène Boudin loved to paint.
Hubert Le Gall, born in 1961, is a French designer, creator and sculptor of contemporary art. He was elected
“Creator of the year” at Maison&Objet 2012. His work has formed the subject of numerous exhibitions
throughout Europe. Since 2000 he has produced original scenographies for exhibitions, including:
2012 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris - Canaletto – Guardi, the two masters of Venice
2012 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris - The Twilight of the Pharaohs
2012 Musée Maillol, Paris – Artemisia
2011 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris – Fra Angelico and the Masters of Light
2011 Musée Maillol, Paris – Pompeii, a way of life
2011 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris – The Caillebotte brothers’ private world. Painter and photographer
2011 Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris – Odilon Redon, prince of dream
2011 Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris – Aimé Césaire, Lam, Picasso
2011 Musée Maillol, Paris – Miró sculpteur
2010 Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris – Monet
2010 Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris – France 1500, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
2010 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris – Rubens, Poussin and the 17th century artists
2010 Musée d’Orsay, Paris – Crime and Punishment
2010 Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris – From El Greco to Dalí. Les grands maîtres espagnols. La collection
Pérez Simón
2009 Musée d’Orsay, Paris – See Italy and Die. Photography and Painting in 19th Century Italy
2009 Musée du Luxembourg, Paris – Louis Comfort Tiffany. Colors and Light
2009 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris – Bruegel, Memling, Van Eyck… The Brukenthal collection
2009 Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris – The Italian Primitives. The Altenburg collection
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VISITOR AIDS
The exhibition website : www.expo-eugeneboudin.com
- Clear and detailed descriptions of major works.
- Large-format images to appreciate works in the tiniest detail.
- The opportunity to learn more about the exhibition through audio podcasts and photo reports.
- Regular quizzes to win catalogues and tickets for the exhibition
Tour commentary on iPhone/iPad and Android
This tour guide, available in French and English, offers a full introduction, audio commentary on selected
works and exclusive audio bonuses that look behind the scenes of the exhibition (bonuses are present only
on the French version).
The variety of content (video, audio, image) and smooth “cover flow” navigation make this an
indispensable tool for a detailed tour of the exhibition.
The Jacquemart-André Museum offers on-site downloading facilities without the need for a 3G connection
thanks to Wi-Fi access dedicated exclusively to download from App Store.
Audio guide
An audio guide describing a selection of major works is available in 2 languages (French and English) and
costs 4€.
Visitor’s booklet
Available at the entrance to the Museum, this booklet takes you around the exhibition
step by step, with a general presentation of each room and detailed commentary on
the
major works to enhance your visit.
On sale at the museum ticket office for 3€.
For the little ones: the activity booklet
Offered free of charge to every child who visits the exhibition, this booklet is a guide
for young children that explains the main works of art in the exhibition in an
entertaining way through different mystery words and various puzzles to be solved.
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PUBLICATIONS
The catalogue
A catalogue has been published by the Musée Jacquemart-André and Fonds Mercator on
the occasion of the Eugène Boudin exhibition. This richly illustrated book contains a
detailed analysis of each of the paintings included in the exhibition. From the introductory
essays by the general curator Laurent Manoeuvre and other specialists of the artist,
visitors will have greater understanding of the place of Eugène Boudin on the art scene in
the second half of the 19th century.
240 pages, € 39. On sale at the bookshop from 22 March.
Connaissance des Arts – special edition
The special issue of Connaissance des Arts magazine, dedicated to the exhibition, covers
the main themes that ran through the art of Eugène Boudin. It also includes a
commentary of the works of the artist exceptionally on show in Paris.
On sale at the bookshop from 22 March at € 9,50.
Le Figaro – special edition
This special issue by Le Figaro magazine highlights the diversity and richness of the art of
Eugène Boudin and traces the links he maintained with artists of his time.
On sale at the bookshop from 22 March at € 8,90.
The "Journal de l’expo" – Beaux Arts magazine
The “Journal de l'Expo” - Beaux-Arts magazine takes you on a trip
following in the footsteps of Eugène Boudin to discover this
outdoor artist whose innovative research heralded that of the
Impressionists.
On sale at the bookshop from 22 March at € 5.
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MEDIA PARTNERS OF THE EXHIBITION
France 3 is proud to be associated with the Jacquemart-André Museum for the “Eugène Boudin“ exhibition.
The ambition of the public group France Télévisions is to bring culture to life and make it accessible and
intelligible to the masses while satisfying the curiosity and wishes of all audiences.
Committed to this ambitious policy, France 3, its local channel, is endeavouring more than ever to promote
cultural diversity and above all the rich French and European artistic heritage.
A supporter of all culture, France 3 carries out its mission through many regular and overarching programmes
such as the "Des racines et des ailes" series, "Passion patrimoine", “Le Grand Tour” which offers at 8.45 p.m. a
brand new cultural journey, but also “Midi en France” explores the treasures of the heritage and culture of each
French town or city - not forgetting filmed operas, shows, plays or the cultural news featured in the national and
regional news bulletins (“12/13” and “19/20”).
Thanks to Culturebox, Internet users can access videos about all the cultural and artistic events around France
and share comments and their favourites.
France 3 will be at the event at the Jacquemart-André Museum to pay tribute to the quality and richness of this
exhibition which it is happy to partner with.
www.francetelevisions.fr
Le Parisien has always supported major cultural events; the newspaper reviews all the latest cultural news in its
cultural pages, covering music, exhibitions, cinema, theatre and literature.
This year, Le Parisien is a partner of the eagerly awaited exhibition at the Jacquemart-André Museum: Eugène
Boudin, gathering of some sixty paintings, watercolours, and drawings of this major artist who preceded the
impressionists. Thanks to exceptional loans provided by major American museums (the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, DC, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston…), some of his works will be shown for the first time in France
since they were purchased by avant-garde American art aficionados.
Le Parisien tackles every subject simply and objectively, giving everyone the keys to understanding today’s
world. Its goal is to inform, entertain and provide a service. Le Parisien has ten local editions with editorial
teams in Ile-de-France and Seine et Marne. Each edition covers the latest news from across Paris and the towns
and neighbourhoods of its particular département, looking at political, social and cultural events and providing
practical information.
Le Parisien today in France: key figures
In 2012, circulation figures for Le Parisien (the number of newspapers sold daily) reached over 465,000 (source:
OJD 2011 – total circulation), representing 2,443,000 readers every morning (Audipresse One - 2011).
www.leparisien.fr
Press contact Le Parisien : Marie-Caroline Durand / mcdurand@leparisien.fr / 00 33 (0)1 40 10 33 83
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Following its support of “Canaletto – Guardi, the two masters of Venice” last season, France Inter
continues the adventure by supporting the new exhibition at the Jacquemart-André Museum entitled
“Eugène Boudin“.
Since 1899, there has never been an exhibition in Paris devoted to the “King of Skies” as he was called by
Corot. Musée Jacquemart-André is proposing an unprecedented retrospective via sixty or so paintings,
pastels and watercolours. This exhibition has been made possible thanks to exceptional loans, notably by
North American museums as the art of Eugène Boudin aroused the interest of American enthusiasts at a
very early stage.
France Inter has joined with this event to have its listeners discover or rediscover the marines or beach
scenes by one of the first artists to set up his easel out of doors to paint landscapes.
France Inter invites its listeners to discover one of the precursors of Impressionism to whom Claude
Monet used to say he “owed everything”.
An event to discover, experience and explore on the airwaves of France Inter and on www.franceinter.fr
Eugène Boudin’s scenes, whether landscapes or seascapes, are near-photographic snapshots that invite
you to travel. A feature on the works of this painter comes fully within the great tradition of Figaro
Magazine which, since its creation, has celebrated the majesty of art and travel.
A magazine with a strong personality, established at the crossroads of information and pleasure, Figaro
Magazine combines high-quality writing with the beauty of photography. Directed by Guillaume Roquette,
every Friday, the Figaro Magazine editorial team proposes various articles on subjects in the news, via the
opinions of its renowned columnists (Eric Zemmour, Frédéric Beigbeder, François Simon, etc.), large format
features, an exceptional selection of photos and its guide entitled “Envies”, devoted solely to the art of
living and culture.
Figaro Magazine is available on Fridays with the weekend pack (Figaro Daily, Madame Figaro and TV
Magazine).
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L’Express is France’s first news weekly. Every Wednesday in L’Express Styles and every day on lexpress.fr, a
selection of pertinent news items is revealed, enriched and decrypted. Exhibitions and major cultural events
are given pride of place.
This year, L’Express Styles is pleased to support Musée Jacquemart-André for the first time, for the “Eugène
Boudin” exhibition.
L’Express, “une Marque de Tous les Instants” (a brand constantly on its toes)
- 1 weekly magazine and 2,139,000 readers every week
- a 24/7 flow of information with 5.1 million unique visitors a months
- Editorials, videos, features, exclusives, forums, chats
- a mobile strategy with Iphone, Ipad, Android and Blackberry apps.
- 42 blogs
- 100% web programmes in partnerships with the INA and Dailymotion
more than 80 journalists on Twitter
Since January 2012, L’Express has made the community the focus of its editorial strategy: on Express Yourself,
Intern users themselves post images, articles and comments on news alongside the editorial team on its 3
channels.
A partner of major exhibitions, L‘Oeil is pleased to lend its support once again to Musée Jacquemart André
on the occasion of its flagship spring event: "Eugène Boudin". With this exhibition, via over 60 exceptional
works, its curator, Laurent Manoeuvre, takes us on a journey of discovery of the paintings of this veritable
“King of the Skies”, a visionary artist who, by his teaching, was the person who sparked off the
Impressionism of Monet and many others.
L‘Oeil, has been THE leading magazine since 1955 for news of the arts in Paris, the French regions and
worldwide. Every month, L‘Oeil enthusiastically analyses and criticises more than a hundred exhibitions for
its 100,000 readers, ranging from Antiquity to more contemporary creations, with a viewpoint open to all
the arts: painting, drawing, installations, photography, architecture and design, etc.. In its March 2013
edition, L‘Oeil devotes a ten-page feature to the history of painters and the sea. The history of a major
genre, marine painting, which includes the greatest names in painting, starting with the artist that the
public can finally see once again: Eugène Boudin. To read the article, visit loeil.fr <http://loeil.fr/>"
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Leading French distributor of leisure tickets and show tickets, every year Fnac offers more than 60,000 events
in France, Belgium and Switzerland: museums, exhibitions, monuments, concerts, festivals, great shows,
theatre, comedy, dance, classical music, opera, cinema, sport, trade shows/fairs, leisure parks, restaurants,
leisure activities, etc. With 91 shops in France, its website, its telephone platform, its mobile website and its
Tick&live application for iPhone, Samsung Bada and Android, Fnac allows you to book and obtain your tickets
immediately. Fnac is also a place where the public meets the artists: throughout the year, it organises cultural
meetings, debates and mini-concerts in its own Forums and outside its walls. It associates itself with
numerous events, thereby fulfilling its role as cultural player.
By being a partner of the Jacquemart-André Museum, which is hosting the “Eugène Boudin“exhibition, Fnac
confirms its commitment to artistic creativity and its determination to defend the right of everyone to access
all types of culture.
www.fnac.com
For the UGC Group, it was an obvious and enthusiastic choice to support Musée Jacquemart-André once
again in the context of the exhibition devoted to Eugène Boudin. This retrospective, the first in Paris since
1899, is a fabulous opportunity to plunge into the unique universe of the major figure of 19th century
pictorial art, discover or rediscover the exceptional work of this painter of light and nature.
Via this partnership, UGC is pleased to continue its approach to encourage access by as many people as
possible to the works and artists that constitute the wealth of our culture. An approach applied by UGC
every day in its cinemas by offering its audiences the full diversity of French and international cinema and
by supporting cinema talent in the production, distribution and diffusion of their films. An approach which,
for the past three years, with Viva l’Opera! has also involved the broadcasting of a selection of operas
staged in the world’s greatest opera houses and, starting this year, thanks to its association with the Paris
National Opera, has shown direct live broadcasts in UGC cinemas of five operas and three ballets from the
2012-2013 season.
Created in 1971 through the association of various regional networks of cinemas, UGC underwent a rapid
development, becoming one of the largest European groups of cinemas present today in all fields of the
sector (screening, distribution and production).
UGC has 378 cinemas in France and 43 cinemas in Belgium. They screened close to 600 films in 2011 and
attracted 34 million cinema-goers.
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Visioloisirs / Visioscène is an audiovisual production company specialised in video diffusion on multiple
support media (the Internet, cinemas, TV, major brands, etc.). Its mission is to optimise the visibility of
cultural sites, theatres and concert halls.
Over the past few seasons, Visioloisirs / Visioscène has been working with Culturespaces to bring the
temporary exhibitions and permanent collections of the Museum to the notice of the general public.
www.visioloisirs.com - www.visioscene.com
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CULTURESPACES,
PRODUCER AND MANAGER OF THE EXHIBITION
Culturespaces produces and manages, with an ethical and professional approach, monuments, museums
and prestigious historic sites entrusted to it by public bodies and local authorities. These include the
Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris, the Ephrussi de Rothschild and Kerylos Villas on the French Riviera,
the Roman Theatre of Orange, the Château des Baux de Provence, the Carrières de Lumières, the Nîmes
Arena, the National Automobile and Train Museums in Mulhouse.
It is thanks to these management methods, approved by AFNOR, that Culturespaces has been awarded ISO
9001 certification for the quality of the services it provides and its successful management of cultural
heritage. Culturespaces welcomes thus more than 2 millions visitors each year.
In 20 years, in close collaboration with curators and art historians, Culturespaces has organised many
temporary exhibitions of international standing in Paris and in the regions. Culturespaces manages the
whole chain of production for each exhibition, in close collaboration with the public owner, the curator and
the exhibition sponsor: programming, loans, transport, insurance, set design, communications, partnership
and sponsorship, catalogues and spin-off products.
Today Culturespaces works with some of the most prestigious national and international museums in the
world.
Recent exhibitions organised at the Jacquemart-André Museum:
2012 Canaletto – Guardi, the two Masters of Venice – 240, 000 visitors
2012 The Twilight of the Pharaohs – 139 ,000 visitors
2011 Fra Angelico ans the Masters of Light – 250,000 visitors
2011 The Caillebotte brothers’ private world. Painter and photographer – 220,000 visitors
2010 Rubens, Poussin and 17th century artists – 150,000 visitors
2010 From El Greco to Dalí. The great Spanish masters. The Pérez Simón collection – 200,000 visitors
2009 Bruegel, Memling, Van Eyck… The Brukenthal Collection – 240,000 visitors
2009 The Italian Primitives. Masterpieces of the Altenbourg Collection – 160,000 visitors.
2008 Van Dyck – 200,000 visitors
2007 Fragonard – 200,000 visitors
2006 The Thracians’ Gold – 150,000 visitors
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THE JACQUEMART-ANDRÉ MUSEUM
Owned by the Institut de France, the Jacquemart-André Museum has been developed and managed by
Culturespaces since 1996.
The Jacquemart-André Museum, the home of collectors from the late 19th century, offers the public, in
this temple of art, numerous works of art bearing the most famous signatures of:
▪ Italian Renaissance art: Della Robbia, Bellini, Mantegna, Uccello, etc.
▪ Flemish painting: Rembrandt, Hals, Ruysdaël, etc.
▪ French painting of the 18th century: Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard, Vigée-Lebrun, etc.
together with significant items of furniture, indicative of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart’s taste for
the decorative arts.
This collection, unique in terms of both its quality and the diversity of the works it contains, boasts
exceptional visitor facilities which makes it accessible to everyone. With more than 2 million visitors since it
reopened in March 1996, the Jacquemart-André Museum is one of the top museums in Paris.
The André mansion very quickly became the Jacquemart-André mansion, so great was the role which Nélie
Jacquemart was able to play in its evolution and development. This mansion and its collections appear
today as the legacy which this wealthy and childless couple, who dedicated their lives to the finest aspects
of art, wished to leave to posterity.
The beneficiary of this asset, the Institut de France, has since strived to ensure that Nélie Jacquemart’s
wishes are respected and to introduce her lovingly compiled collections to as many people as possible.
Today there are fifteen magnificent exhibition rooms, the most intimate of reception rooms, still
exquisitely decorated, occupying almost 1,000 m², which are open to visitors to the Jacquemart- André
Museum.
The restoration and renovation work undertaken in 1996, with a view to reopening to the public, was
intended to make, as far as possible, the mansion feel like a home, so that visitors would find themselves
surrounded by the warmth of a living, welcoming, rather than educational, setting.
Art, the lifeblood of Édouard and Nélie André, enabled this pair of collectors to gather, in just a few
decades, almost 5,000 works, many of which are of exceptional quality. To satisfy their eclectic tastes, the
Andrés were able, with rigour and determination, to call on the greatest antiques dealers and traders,
travel the world in search of rare objects, spend considerable sums of money on masterpieces, sacrifice
second-rate pieces - and sometimes even return them to the seller - in order to be true to their criteria of
excellence, which makes the Jacquemart-André mansion a top international museum.
Like the Frick Collection in New York, the Jacquemart-André Museum combines presenting an exceptional
19th century collectors’ house with visitor facilities which meet the expectations of people today.
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VISUALS AVAILABLE FOR THE PRESS
Important notice : the RMN displays can be reproduced as a quarter-page. Reproductions in a larger format are subject to
the payment of reproduction rights. For payment of reproduction rights, please contact Mrs Vladana Jonquet at:
vladana.jonquet@rmn.fr. For Internet sites: the rate for use of low-definition visuals (72 dpi) for promoting the exhibition is
€56. The only work affected by this measure is the following visual no. 9.
Visual no. 3 can be used freely for the press but must not be put on the Internet.
1. Eugène Boudin
Beach near Trouville
1864
Oil on canvas
67,5 x 104 cm
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des Beaux-Arts
de l’Ontario – Anonymous Gift, 1991
© 2012AGO
2. Eugène Boudin
Concert at Deauville Casino
1865
Oil on canvas
41,7 x 73 cm
Washington, National Gallery of Art,
Collection of Mr. And Mrs. Paul Mellon
© Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
3. Eugène Boudin
Beach scene
1869
Oil on canvas
29 x 47 cm
Madrid, Collección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza en
depósito en el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
© Collección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza en depósito
en el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
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4. Eugène Boudin
Boats in Honfleur Harbour
1865
Oil on paper mounted on wood
20,3 x 26,7 cm
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. Anonymous Gift
Photograph © 2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
5. Eugène Boudin
Fisherwomen on Berck Beach
1881
Oil on panel
24,8 x 36,2 cm
Washington, National Gallery of Art,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
© Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
6. Eugène Boudin
Deauville
1888
Oil on canvas
50,9 x 75,4 cm
Reims, Museum of Fine Arts.
© Photo: C. Devleeschauwer
7. Eugène Boudin
Rising tide, Deauville
1894
Oil on canvas
55 x 80 cm
Quebec, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec
Gift from the estate of Maurice Duplessis.
Restoration done by the Québec conservation center thanks to a
contribution for the Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts
of Quebec
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© MNBAQ, photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
8. Eugène Boudin
Beach of Berck (Pas-de-Calais)
1877
Oil on canvas
43,5 x 73,3 cm
Reims, Museum of Fine Arts
© Photo: C. Devleeschauwer
9. Eugène Boudin
Antibes. The Fortifications. Day effect
1893
Oil on canvas
46 x 66 cm
Musée d’Orsay (on deposit at the Jules Chéret/Nice
Museum of Fine Arts), donation from the Duchess of
Windsor in memory of His Royal Highness the Duke of
Windsor.
© RMN – Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Preveral
10. Eugène Boudin
Venice – The Esclavons Quay, Customs House and the
Salute
1895
Oil on canvas
46 x 65 cm
Quebec, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec
Gift from the estate of Maurice Duplessis.
Restoration done by the Québec conservation center.
© MNBAQ, photo : Patrick Altman
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PRACTICAL INFORMATION
A stone’s throw from the Champs-Elysées, the Musée Jacquemart-André presents Paris’s finest private art collection
in the setting of a grand 19th century mansion. Visit this magnificent town residence, the product of the passion of
Edouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart, with its stunning collection, which in particular includes major works
by the great Flemish masters, paintings of the 18th century French school and others by some of the most
distinguished artists of the Italian Renaissance.
Owned by the Institut de France, the Jacquemart-André Museum has been developed and managed by
Culturespaces since 1996.
Opening times and rates
Open 365 days a year from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Open every Monday and Saturday evening until 8.30
p.m.
The tea room is open every day from 11.45 a.m. to 5.30
p.m. Brunch Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Open every Monday and Saturday evening until 7 p.m.
The cultural gift and bookshop is open when the museum
is open, including Sundays.
Individuals
Full rate: 11€
Reduced rate: 9.5€ (students, children from 7 to 17, jobseekers)
Exhibition audio guide: 4€
Permanent collection audio guide: free
Free for children under the age of 7, members and staff of
the Institut de France, journalists and tourism
professionals.
Family Rate
Pay the admission charge for two adults and one child and
the second child gets in free (7 to 17 years).
Groups
Group visits are only subject to reservation:
groupes@musee-jacquemart-andre.com. Groups are not
admitted to the exhibition rooms after 2.00 pm.
Access
Jacquemart-André Museum
158, boulevard Haussmann - 75008 PARIS
Tel.: +33 1 45 62 11 59
www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com
The Museum is located 400 meters from place Charles de
Gaulle-Étoile.
Metro: lines 9 and 13 (Saint-Augustin, Miromesnil
or Saint-Philippe du Roule)
RER: RER A (Charles de Gaulle-Étoile)
Bus: 22, 43, 52, 54, 28, 80, 83, 84, 93.
Car park: Haussmann-Berri
Station Velib: rue de Berri
The temporary exhibition rooms are not accessible to
people with reduced mobility.
.
A museum promoted and managed by
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