The Entrance to Trouville Harbour

By 1888 Trouville had been a railway resort for a quarter of a century. Trains from Paris unloaded holidaymakers onto the sands, and the villas and the casino were built to hold them. This picture faces the other way. It looks at the mouth of the river Touques, where two jetties make the entrance to the harbour, at low tide, with the working boats sitting on the sand until the water comes back for them. That leaves the canvas in two halves. The river is flat as a mirror, the sky above it is full of moving cloud, and a thin band of turquoise sea runs between the two with a suggestion of breaking waves. Boudin painted it on a mahogany panel about 32 by 41 centimetres, small enough to carry out to the jetty.