Boudin, (Louis) Eugène

French artist. A forerunner of the Impressionists, he is known for his luminous seaside scenes painted in the open air, such as Beach at Trouville (1873; National Gallery, London).

The son of a ship's captain at Honfleur. He was encouraged to paint by artists of the Barbizon School, Isabey, Troyon and Corot contributing to his development. He worked mainly on the Normandy coast and in Brittany, rendering vividly the breezy atmosphere and restless sea and sky of the region round the mouth of the Seine, and Deauville and Trouville with their Second Empire and Victorian visitors. He initiated Claude Monet into open-air painting in 1858, and with Jongkind, the friend of both, thus has a place in the development of Impressionism. He contributed to the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.