The Beach at Deauville

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Artist: Eugène Louis Boudin (French, 1824–1898)
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Size: Unframed: 34.7 x 26 cm (13 11/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Culture: France, 19th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

During the 1860s, Boudin executed many paintings and watercolors representing well-to-do tourists and vacationers enjoying seaside resorts in Normandy, principally Trouville and Deauville. In this scene, the informally posed figures suggest a sense of relaxation and intimacy. The overturned chair in the foreground underscores the impression of a casually observed moment, as though a sea breeze or a quick departure by its former occupant has upended it.

The majority of Boudin's small oil paintings of beach scenes of the 1860s were executed on wood panel. After laying down a thin white ground, Boudin seems to have begun painting directly, not drawing or laying in guidelines for the forms. The result is a freshness and airiness appropriate to a windy day at the beach.