La plaza Ary Scheffer, Dordrecht

Boudin came to Dordrecht in 1884 and stayed about a month, working mostly from the water, and went home with something like 36 panels and canvases. This is one of the small ones. The square he set up in front of is named for Ary Scheffer, a painter born in this town in 1795 who made his career in Paris. His statue had stood there since May 1862, designed by his daughter Cornelia, cast in Paris and shipped up by rail, the first monument the Netherlands raised to an artist of its own day. Boudin gives it as a dark upright among the awnings. High houses close the view on both sides, which is what makes the square look oddly Venetian here. The panel came back to Dordrecht in 2005, bought for the town's own museum.