Harbour of Antwerp

Boudin first came to Antwerp in 1870, crossing into Belgium to sit out the war between France and Prussia, and the great Scheldt harbor kept pulling him back. He painted this one in 1876, when Antwerp was among the busiest ports in Europe, a forest of masts with the newer steamers pushing in among the sailing ships. He liked a place like this for the same reason he liked the beach, since it gave him weather and water and a crowded, shifting sky to work under. The boats sit low on the canvas so the light on the harbor does most of the talking. Traders, dockhands and passengers are sketched in as small dark marks, busy under a soft northern haze.