Just about everybody has heard about the artist, Claude Monet, but not many know about his mentor and friend, Eugene Boudin.  Boudin is actually the one who first inspired Monet to try painting outdoors where he could observe and capture the changing light.  Before Boudin persuaded Monet to come to the northern coast of France to paint the ocean and skies there, Monet was a charicature artist in Paris.  So we owe a lot to Boudin!

Monet himself credited Boudin with his success as a painter when he said, "If I became a painter, it is to Eugène Boudin that I owe that fact." Boudin's influence on Monet is obvious in Monet's early paintings which could easily be mistaken for Boudin's work. 

 

What we find with both of them is that they had a strong preference for painting "en plein air".  I do't think either of them would be interested in painting from photographs today!

Eugene Boudin specialized in painting ocean beach scenes and is particularly noted for his skies, which are incredible in the original paintings.  Unfortunaly a lot is lost is photographic reproductions of his paintings. According to Boudin, even though his paintings are incredible, they don't match the glory of God's creation.  

Boudin said, "Nature is richer than I represent it.. .Nature is so beautiful that when I am not tortured by poverty I am tortured by her splendor. How fortunate we are to be able to see and admire the glories of the sky and earth; if only I could be content just to admire them. But there is always the torment of struggling to reproduce them, the impossibility of creating anything within the narrow limits of painting."

 

Monet's thoughts were similar.  "It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm."  

 

 

Monet - Beach at Trouville

 

This is why two of the first artsts to paint outdoors found painting "en plain air" so fascinating.  And also why I believe they would be frustrated if they had to paint from photographs today!