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catalogue Eugène Boudin was born in Normandy in 1824. He spent his childhood on the sea, working as the cabin boy on his father’s cargo ship. This early exposure to the sea and skies of the French Coast was to form his primary focus as a painter later in life. It was Boudin who would form the all important link between traditional French landscape and the start of the Impressionist movement. His early career consisted predominantly of painting outdoor sketches in the summer, which he would then complete in his studio over the winter months. During this period he also painted genre scenes and still life but it was the vast skies and seas of the Normandy Coast that he always returned to. In 1862 he began to paint the crowds of fashionable tourists who flocked to the coast from Paris on summer weekends. To paint people on a beach, smartly dressed and enjoying themselves was daringly modern. The Impressionists developed this subject in the coming decades, but it marked Boudin out as distinctly avant-garde. By the middle of the 1850s he recognized the ‘falseness’ of painting landscapes from memory and bean to paint almost exclusively en plein air a practice that was to be so influential on the Impressionists. The immediacy of the work Boudin painted outdoors and the attention paid to the changing atmosphere had a particular effect on the young Claude Monet, who first worked alongside him in 1856. He said, ‘…it was as if a veil had been torn from my eyes. I had understood, had grasped what painting could be. Boudin’s absorption of his work, and his independence, were enough to decide the entire future and development of my painting.’ 1 Although he had been exhibiting at the Paris Salon since 1959, he displayed little appetite for increasing his profile and chose not to move to Paris permanently. By the late 1860’s he stopped painting the scenes of stylish figures on the beach, and dedicated himself entirely to his coastal scenes. Despite this, his reputation was such that in 1874 he was included in the first Impressionist exhibition and although he chose not to become part of the notorious group he still exhibited with many of the artists. Our painting depicts the mouth of the river Toques flanked by two jetties which form the entrance to Trouville harbour. It was a favourite subject for Boudin (another version is in the National Gallery collection – The Entrance to Trouville Harbour, 1888 and was the first ‘modern’ French work to be acquired for the State). Boudin captures his scene on a blustery summer’s day. The tide is far out with the break water just visible on the horizon. The primary focus of the painting is the fishing boat which rests, lazily on a sandbank. The immediacy and vibrancy with which he captures the effect of bright sunlight on the boat’s deck and rigging demonstrate the ideals which Impressionism was to take further, all rendered with rapid, short brushstrokes. More boats rest against the jetty walls, while a local tries his luck at fishing on the left side of the river. Tourists with parasols amble on either side of the harbour toward the two brilliant white lighthouses, all captured with quick, measured dabs of Boudin’s brush. Blyth acquired this and the following painting from The Scottish Gallery in 1943. Although Alexander Reid had introduced the Boudin to Scotland in the 1890s it seems that Blyth asked The Scottish Gallery to acquire these works on his behalf. In the receipt it itemizes ‘packing’ and ‘forwarding’ of the pictures from London. 1 G. Jean-Aubry & Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, (New York Graphic Society, Greenwhich, 1968), p.27 24
eugène Boudin (1824–1898) Trouville, Les Jetées, 1890 oil on canvas, 40.5 x 55 cms signed and inscribed with title lower left exhibited: adams Brothers, london, 1943 aitken Dott & son, the scottish Gallery, 1943 A Selection of Modern Scottish, English and French Paintings, art Council Gallery, edinburgh, 1956, (no. 3) 25
Page 1: the taste of JW Blyth
Page 5 and 6: Foreword Michael Portillo I knew my
Page 7 and 8: elevation plan to Wilby house, 1909
Page 9 and 10: Collecting Blyth kept a simple reco
Page 11 and 12: the hawcklymuir factory, Kirkcaldy
Page 13 and 14: and Explanatory Notes on the Art of
Page 15 and 16: Peploe in terms of colour: ‘altho
Page 17 and 18: Blyth’s conversion was certainly
Page 19: Trouville Harbour and Deauville (pa
Page 22 and 23: Most contemporary publications, exh
Page 24 and 25: a warning of what we have escaped i
Page 26 and 27: Vale “No plans were ever made for
Page 30 and 31: “everything that is painted on th
Page 32 and 33: Wintour was born in Edinburgh and a
Page 34 and 35: Two years senior to his great frien
Page 36 and 37: Paintings by William McTaggart, R.S
Page 38 and 39: there are a number of pictures of R
Page 40 and 41: In July 1947 Blyth bought a picture
Page 42 and 43: “The remarkable place which he ho
Page 44 and 45: “To few men has a more beautiful
Page 46 and 47: Wingate’s first arran subject exh
Page 48 and 49: Wingate’s Farm seems close in spi
Page 50 and 51: Alexander was born in Edinburgh, so
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Page 54 and 55: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Doves a
Page 56 and 57: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Gullane
Page 58 and 59: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Storeho
Page 61 and 62: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) The Lobster
Page 64 and 65: Peploe is strongly associated with
Page 66 and 67: Comrie is a village on the River ea
Page 68 and 69: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) Paris Plage
Page 70 and 71: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) Royan, 1910
Page 72 and 73: Peploe began to visit the south-wes
Page 74 and 75: fergusson held his first one-man-sh
Page 76 and 77: Blyth bought three hunters the othe
Page 78 and 79:
Grant first visited Cassis in 1927
Page 80 and 81:
Lily McDougall was born in Glasgow
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Walter Richard sickert (1860-1942)
Page 87 and 88:
ernest stephen lumsden (1883-1948)
Page 89 and 90:
James McBey (1883-1959) Venice Gran
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