A common influence... maybe: Eugène Louis Boudin

While wandering the website for the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, California, what caught my eye was one of their current exhibits being titled Impressionists on the Water. The show itself started June 1^st and is supposed to run until October 13^th and is supposed to feature water themed works by artists who were well known during the Impressionistic movement and includes work from Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and several others. One name however caught my eye was Eugène Louis Boudin due to the fact that I am familiar with his work and have had him come up in my studies on various occasions when I was in college.

"Deauville le Bassin" by Eugène Louis Boudin

French landscape painter Eugène Louis Boudin (1824-1898) was one of the first to paint outdoors (en plein air). Specializing in marine themed pieces, he was heavily influenced by the Dutch masters of the 17^th century. With his growing popularity after making connections within first the French art circles, he was able to travel to Belgium, the Netherlands and southern France. Mr. Boudin did win several awards during his career and was made a knight of the Legion d'honneur.

With that, it made me wonder if I could find any works that reminded me of Boudin's work so I hunted around deviantART. It did take a bit of searching before I found 5 artists to ask my question:

"I was looking through your work and was wondering if your seascape related pieces were inspired perhaps by the French landscape artist Eugène Louis Boudin."

"Seascape with Icebergs" by Dragarta

Dragarta.deviantart.com (Czech Republic)

A traditional artist located in the Czech Republic, Lucie Culková has a wonderful array of fantasy inspired works mostly focusing on dragons and other such mystical creatures. Even with this, I was surprised when I located a special gem she had titled as Seascape with icebergs hidden in her gallery. Though in the description, she states that her inspiration was William Bradford (1823-1892), I couldn't help but fine myself noticing the similarities between the two. It is perhaps due to the fact Bradford was part of the Hudson River School which encouraged plein air painting which was becoming popular in the United States at the time after its popularity in Europe spread with the artists traveling to seek out new subject matters. 

“Hey! Nope, none of them is I think. It's always written in the description if I am inspired by an artist. Most of my seascapes are referenced photos.”

"Seascape" by MountainInspirations

MountainInspirations.deviantart.com (United States)

Traditional artist living in the United States, Lisa works mostly with pastels on sanded paper. Soft and inviting, her landscapes have very much an impressionistic feel to them which draws the viewer in.

“My inspiration comes from the reference photo and what kind of mood I'm in when I'm painting. I'm so flattered to be compared to one of the masters! Thank you!”

"Long Island Waves" Wulff-Arts

Wulff-Arts.deviantart.com (United States)

Working in a wide range of traditional mediums such as pastels and oils, US artist Joan Wulff's work is as varied- depicting landscapes, animals and imagined Victorian scenes.

“No, I was only inspired by myself. I don't know who Eugene Louis Boudin is, but I will look him up.”

There were 2 other artists that have yet to respond but it might be due to their busy schedules or the problem of a language barrier. So as always, I shall present them and let you decide if they were influenced in someway by Eugène Louis Boudin or not.

"148" by StudioUndertheMoon

StudioUndertheMoon.deviantart.com (Poland)

Justyna Anna Kopania, traditional artist out of Poland, has her gallery filled with beautiful impressionistic oil paintings. With each one, she uses the thickness and texture of the paint to add to the piece making the work almost 3 dimensional. Though she has various subject matters, a topic she seems to keep coming back to are water/seascapes with fishing vessels. 

RobertoSimeroni.deviantart.com (Israel) 

An oil painter from Israel, Roberto Simeroni's work is a beautiful nod to the classic works of the 19th century.

"Ship in a Storm" Roberto Simeroni

Writer's Note: There is a part of me that does wonder if Roberto's work that he has posted is his own (mimicing pieces by some of the masters) or altered/cropped pieces of well known works that are in museums. Of course I have no proof to go either way so with that, I will also leave it up to you to take a look of things. 



For those who are interested in visiting the Legion of Honor if you're going to be in San Francisco at some point between now and October and wanting to see the show: 

Legion of Honor
Lincoln Park at 100 34th Avenue (at Clement Street) 
San Francisco, California
http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 9:30am - 5:15pm
Monday - closed 

General Admission: 
Adults $10
Seniors 65+ $7
Youths 13-17 $6 
College Students with valid ID $6

Children 12 and Under Free

Writer's Note: For anyone who is interested in actually viewing the Impressionists on the Water show, please be warned that due to the names and the value of the collection of pieces that the admission to see it is quite a bit more then the General Admission and is as follows:
Adults $20
Seniors $17
Students with current ID $16
Youths 6-10 $10