The Entrance to Trouville Harbour

Boudin, who was born and grew up in the Normandy port of Honfleur and later owned a framing shop in Le Havre, had a lifelong fascination with the Channel coast. He is best known for his paintings of affluent holidaymakers on the beaches of Trouville, but this painting shows a different aspect of life in the Normandy port. Here we see the mouth of the river Touques at the point where it flows into the sea, with the two jetties either side forming the entrance to the harbour.

The tide is low, and ships are aground on the sandy banks. Boudin plays with the contrast between the river, as still and glassy as a mirror, and the lively sky with its scudding clouds. The two are separated by a narrow band of turquoise sea with a suggestion of breaking waves.

Credit: Presented by the Art Fund, 1906