Deauville Harbour

By the late 1880s Boudin was no longer a summer visitor on this coast. He had spent every summer since 1864 at Trouville and Deauville, the two resorts that face each other across the mouth of the river Touques, and in 1884 he built himself a house in Deauville. This small oil sketch on a wooden panel dates from around 1888 to 1890. Tall sailing ships lie at the quay, their masts cutting into a sky of heaped cloud, and their hulls are mirrored in still water. Boudin painted scenes like this partly because dealers asked for them, and partly to catch the movement of water and cloud. The only sign of people is a pair of figures in a small boat beside the central ship, set down with a few quick strokes.