Eugène Boudin

Eugène Boudin was a pioneering French landscape and marine painter, regarded as one of the first artists to paint outdoors, or en plein air. Born in Honfleur, Normandy, he became known for his luminous seascapes and beach scenes that captured transient light and atmospheric effects. Boudin greatly influenced Claude Monet and other Impressionists by encouraging them to work directly from nature. His delicate handling of clouds, skies, and coastal life gave his paintings a fresh, immediate quality. Though less radical than the Impressionists he helped inspire, Boudin’s work laid crucial groundwork for the movement’s development.