Terms and conditions of use
The port of Le Havre
(Le Port du Havre)
1892
Medium
oil on wood panel
Measurements
32.1 × 40.7 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1913
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Eugène Boudin ran a framing shop in the French port city of Le Havre and displayed his diminutive seascapes in its window. Although well connected within the Paris art world, Boudin remained rooted in the Normandy coast, committed to capturing ever-changing moods of the sea, sky and shoreline. His plein-air (open-air) marine compositions became sparser over the years. In this late-career view of Le Havre’s bustling port, the effects of air, space and light glancing off water and sails predominate. For Boudin everything painted directly on the spot had ‘a strength, a power, a vividness of touch that one doesn’t find again in the studio’.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.r.: E. Boudin 92. / le Havre
Accession Number
581-2
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Marines and Seascapes
Subjects (specific)
boats France (nation) Le Havre (inhabited place) sailing vessels seaports ships spars (watercraft components) waterfronts
Provenance
Collection of Alexandre Blanc, Paris, by 1906; included in the Alexandre Blanc sale, Galerie Georges-Petit (dealer), Paris, 3-4 December 1906, no. 14; from where purchased by Galerie Durand-Ruel (dealer), Paris, 1906; with Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, until 1913; from where purchased, on the advice of Frank Colvin and Frank Gibson, for the Felton Bequest, 1913
Frame
Original, by Cézare Dutocq, Paris
Frame
This small, handsome, somewhat out-of-scale frame is a fine example of a Louis XIV frame built with the manufacturing processes of the nineteenth century. Just as the original frames on which it is modelled aspire to the appearance of cast metal, this frame suppresses the nature of the materials used in the construction to create the illusion of a more expensive article. The finest Louis XIV frame in the collection is on Nicolas Poussin’s The Crossing of the Red Sea (1843-4). It is carved in oak and gilded to appear as solid metal. A less eloborate rendering is found on Nicolas de Largilliere’s Crown Prince Frederick Augustus of Saxony (1819-5). Both frames provide reference points for the strengths and shortcomings of the Cézare Dutocq frame. A paper label centre top reverse identifies the framemaker.1
Notes.
1 Though now damaged, the label previously transcribed as: Cézare Dutocq, Dorure-ENCADREMENT, MIROITERIE, 38, Rue Lafitte, Paris.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Cézare Dutocq
38 Rue Lafitte, Paris
Date
1892
Materials
The frame is built from a wooden profile cut from a single section of timber. The corners are mitred and fixed with tapering dovetail splines. The decorative work of the frame is made from composition but has a refined quality. Every surface has been articulated in some way. The small flat is textured with fine sand, the ogee panel is worked with scrolled strap work, which sits on a finely dimpled surface. The flat sections of the large corner and centre sections carry an incised diaper pattern. The surface appears to be gold leaf throughout. The leading edge is burnished, as are the outer scotia through to the working edge and the highlights on the decorative work.
Frame Condition
The frame is in good original condition with small losses and repair to the large ornaments. The composition elements on the corners are cracked, following the mitres of the underlying wooden chassis.
Dimensions
53.3 x 62.0 x 8.5 cm; sight 31.3 x 39.4 cm