海滩上的人物

The railway reached the Normandy coast at Trouville in 1863, and within a few seasons the sand there was covered every summer with Parisians who had come down for the day. Boudin painted them again and again, and what he painted is people doing almost nothing. The women sit out on the beach fully dressed, hats on, skirts spread over the sand, as though a drawing room had been carried outdoors. He worked small and fast, often finishing in the open air, and these beach pictures sold well to the visitors themselves. This canvas is about 38 by 61 centimetres, and the National Gallery of Art dates it around 1867. Paul Mellon bought it in 1952 and gave it to the Gallery in 1983.