Eugene Louis Boudin (Honfleur 1824-1898 Deauville) (Honfleur 1824-1898 Deauville) Dunkerque, voiliers à quai, signed, dated (18)91.E.Boudin, oil on panel, 41,5 x 32,5 cm, framed. Eugene Louis Boudin (Honfleur 1824-1898 Deauville) Dunkerque, voiliers à quai, signiert und datiert 91. E. Boudin, Öl auf Holz, 41,5 x 32,5 cm, gerahmt Provenance: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Georges Ibos sale, 19th June 1900; Acquired from the above by Durand-Ruel; Durand-Ruel Gallery, Paris; Wildenstein & Co, New York; Private Collection; Sotheby’s London, 23 June 1993, lot 173; Acquired from the above by the present owner; European Private Collection Exhibited: London, Grafton Gallery, Alfred Sisley and Eugène Boudin, 1905, no.25; Paris, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Eugène Boudin, 1927, no.16. Catalogued and illustrated in: Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, Paris, 1973, vol.III, p.77, no. 2774. The present work was executed in Dunkerque, a coastal town near the border of France and Belgium. It shows a quiet harbour with boats. The sky and the clouds and the water below occupy most of the composition. Boudin observed indeed from an early age the interaction of sky and water that would dominate his later canvases. This work is particularly charming for his atmospheric quality. Born in Honfleur he painted the ports and coastline of northern France. He painted directly from nature and was a keen observer of contemporary maritime life and his environs.He was admired by his contemporaries such as Courbet who said that he was the only painter who really knows the sky.