Berthing Quay in Rotterdam

Eugène Boudin painted this on one of his working trips to the Low Countries, and Rotterdam in 1879 was a fine place for a man who loved harbours. A few years earlier the city had opened the Nieuwe Waterweg, a new channel straight out to the sea, and shipping was pouring in. Boudin set up at the quay and painted what stood in front of him, boats moored along the wharf, a tangle of masts, the wet grey light coming off the water. He had spent his life doing just this, out in the open with his paintbox, catching the weather as it shifted. The older painter Corot called him the king of the skies, and even in a crowded port the sky takes up much of the canvas here. He came back to Rotterdam more than once in these years, and the museum that holds this painting owns several of his views of the city's quays.