Untitled 1885

Curator: Ah, I'm immediately drawn to the muted blues and grays. There's a melancholy here, a stillness despite the busyness of the harbor. It feels like a memory. Editor: You've keyed into exactly the feeling Eugène Boudin sought in his seascapes, especially in paintings like this one, simply titled "Untitled" from 1885. What we are looking at here is essentially an impression of a harbor with various vessels. Boudin's production was extensive and he spent most of his time in harbor cities painting from nature. Curator: "Impression" is the right word. Look at how he’s captured the light shimmering on the water with such loose, rapid brushstrokes. I can almost smell the salt air. Was he using new pigments or paints that allowed such quick work? Editor: His methodology points to larger material shifts in paint manufacturing and distribution: Paint was available in tubes and this encouraged working en plein air—in open air. Also Boudin influenced a young Monet who later recalled Boudin urging him to capture fleeting impressions in nature rather than working from academic sketches alone. Curator: That makes perfect sense. It’s the impermanence that really grabs me, this sense that everything is shifting, fleeting. But is this really about a harbor or is it about light, the ephemeral nature of experience and about industrial labor around ships? Editor: These are precisely the questions about use-value that must have preoccupied his viewership then, and indeed us today. Art production and ship labor, paint use and trade intersect, materially and culturally. Curator: So much information embedded in seemingly loose strokes! To think of it, Monet then developed this approach to art making even further... So, in its own quiet way, this is actually a revolutionary little painting? Editor: I'd say that's not an overstatement, and understanding that interplay between material and perception gives us a much deeper appreciation for what Boudin achieved, don’t you agree? Curator: Absolutely. It makes you realize the artistic process is not divorced from broader social, cultural and, yes, even industrial currents, doesn't it? Editor: Exactly! These artworks operate in a world, made of particular materials under definite conditions and are consumed through various channels as well. It all adds up.