The Port at Trouville

In 1889 Paris held the world's fair for which the Eiffel Tower was built, and Boudin came away from its art section with a gold medal. That same year he painted this grey, low-tide morning in the harbour at Trouville, a sailing ship lying against the quay and smoke drifting over the rooftops.

The lower left corner holds a small inscription. Next to his signature and the date, Boudin wrote À son ami F. Vinton, to his friend F. Vinton. Frederic Porter Vinton was a portrait painter from Boston who had studied in Paris, and the friendship shows up in Boudin's letters too. In August 1890 he wrote to Vinton from Deauville, the resort across the river from Trouville where he had his house, promising him good lodgings at fair prices and adding that there were no Impressionists there, fortunately. The picture has belonged to the RISD Museum in Providence since 1929.