Rouen - coast Sainte-Catherine, morning fog

In the 1890s Rouen was the furthest point up the Seine that sea-going ships could reach, an industrial river port where cargo passed from ocean vessels to barges bound for Paris. Boudin, who had spent his life on the Channel coast, painted it here from the water's edge, looking across to the Côte Sainte-Catherine, the steep chalk hill that rises about 140 metres over the east of the city. The morning fog of the title has nearly swallowed it. The hill is a grey outline, the bridge in the middle distance a faint arc, and a tall factory chimney on the right fades into its own smoke. The river in front stays sharp, with a moored barge and a rowing boat pulling across the current. He signed it at the lower left with the year, 95. The picture belongs to the collection of the Swiss collector Gérard Corboud, on permanent loan to the Wallraf-Richartz in Cologne since 2001.