Boudin, Eugène (1824-1898)
La plage à Tourgéville-les-Sablons (The Beach at Tourgéville-les-Sablons)
1893
Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 74.3 cm
National Gallery, London
Tourgéville-les-Sablons, with its great sweep of beach, lies on the Normandy coast between Deauville and Benerville. Here, the two jetties at the mouth of the river Touques, which form an entrance to the harbour of Trouville–Deauville, can be seen in the middle distance, to the left of the chalk cliffs. Boudin had painted the jetties from another angle in The Entrance to Trouville Harbour, also in the National Gallery’s collection.
Unlike his earlier paintings of Normandy beaches filled with smart crowds, in this airy panoramic view the beach is quite sparsely populated. Small groups of figures stroll along the sand or sit by the grass-covered dunes, and ships and steamers ply their way through waves on the horizon. But it is the vast expanse of sky, filled with scudding clouds, that dominates the composition. (NG)
See also:
• Tourgéville (France)