Brief Report

This painting is a completed work. The most recent research shows that it was evidently exhibited at the Salon Officiel in 1870, the year of its completion. While this could hitherto only be presumed by dint of archive studies [Honfleur 1992, Lempertz 1998], X-ray examination has now provided confirmation: compared with a second, far smaller version of this composition dating from the same year, and with a similar title [Schmit 1973, vol. I, no. 527, figs. 12, 13], significant changes in the grouping of the figures allow no conclusion but that the small picture was a study for the present work. Thus not only is the sequence of the two works proved, but also the appearance of this one at the Salon, for Boudin would certainly have entered the completed large-format work and not the study. These revisions by the artist, discernible above all in the area of the figures, represent one of the special features of this painting (figs 5-7, cf. fig. 12). The only figures left unchanged were the two with yellow shawls. All the others were previously placed up to about 2.5 cm higher. Additionally, the women were shifted slightly leftwards or rightwards. In this connexion, it is conspicuous that the woman with the blue shawl seated with her back to the beholder was moved twice, and thus her distance from the other two figures was changed three times. The three women on the right were originally not so close together as they are in the visible painting. Furthermore, the first draft of the picture seems to have two more women with white bonnets beside the figure now on the extreme right. Even though the lay-in of the figures was possibly attuned to the total composition from the outset, and was oriented to the small-format study, the fact that they were shifted suggests a dissatisfaction that was perhaps only noticed during the transfer to the larger format, leading to the revision. In addition, it may be noted that the first ground layer, immediately next to the canvas, is very thin and ochre-coloured, and was subsequently covered with a grey layer (fig. 11). Whether the latter is an underpainting or a second ground layer cannot be said with certainty, as it can only be seen in a few places. The painting evinces lively brushwork with a multilayered structure, many areas having been worked wet-in-wet, and smeared into each other (fig. 9). The original delicacy of the surface was impaired by a seriously invasive restoration carried out a long time ago.

Eugène Boudin
Kerhor, Fisherwomen, 1870, oil on canvas, 85.5 x 121.5 cm, WRM Dep. FC 657

Eugène Boudin

born on 12 July 1824 in Honfleur,
died on 8 August 1898 in Deauville

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso, lined


Fig. 03

UV-fluorescence


Fig. 04

Detail, revised group of fisherwomen


Fig. 05

X-ray photo, detail as in fig. 4; the multiple changes in the positions of the figures are clear


Fig. 06

Detail, fisherwoman


Fig. 07

Signature


Fig. 08

Detail, wet-in-wet paint application


Fig. 09

Detail, shoes in foreground, an earlier position was ejected
and painted over by the artist


Fig. 10

Grey-and-ochre layer, whose function as ground, underpainting or imprimitura is unclear


Fig. 11

Study by Boudin, Les pêcheuses de Kerhor, 1870,
h 46.0 cm x b 66.0 cm, private collection


Fig. 12

Group of figures for comparison, detail from fig. 11