The Port of Trouville, Boatyard

In the 1880s Trouville was two towns sharing one river mouth. The beach belonged to the Parisian holidaymakers. The quays along the Touques belonged to the fishing fleet, which had grown enough by 1882 for Trouville to become the seat of its own maritime district. Much of that fleet was built right there. Local yards turned out the grande barque trouvillaise, a wooden sailing boat some 16 to 18 metres long. This is the corner of the harbour Boudin painted in the second half of the decade: a bare wooden hull up on the stocks, small boats pulled onto the grass in front, masts and the roofs of the town beyond. The canvas belongs to the McLean Museum in Greenock, on the Clyde, a town whose own yards were launching iron and steel steamships in those same years.