Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) French

Eugène Boudin (born 12th of July 1824, Honfleur, France - died 8th of August 1898, Deauville France) was a French painter considered as one of the of the forerunners of Impressionism, as he started depicting landscapes in plein air, that is as seen on-site, outside of the studio.

Boudin started his career at the age of 22, working as a portraitist for the French bourgeoisie. Influenced by Flemish and Dutch old masters of the 17th century, he moves to Paris in 1851 and attends the workshop of Eugène Isabel where he met Johan Barthold Jongkind, who will later become one of his closest friends. He will subsequently make friends with significant protagonists of the 19th-century Parisian cultural scene, including Charles Baudelaire, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Couture, Jean-François Millet ou encore Claude Monet. As a forerunner of Impressionism, he was the first artist to paint en plein air, painting his canvas on the spot. He admired changing weather conditions, the sky and seascapes of Brittany and Normandy. In 1894, Boudin will return to Brittany and his magnificent depiction of sailboats, but this time without featuring the human figures that were so characteristic of his early depictions.