The Honfleur School

Saint-Simeon the artists' colony

At the beginning of the 19 ^th century the painters discover Honfleur. The English often pave the way, Turner, Copley Fielding and his brothers: Theodore, Thales, Newton. John Gendall, Richard-Parkes Bonington; it is the study of the light and the emergence of a new painting. Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) and Eugène Delacroix (1798 1863) go to England, Honfleur place of embarkation attracts. Turner Honfleur circa 1832 Tate Gallery

Paul Huet meets Bonington and Eugène Isabey. Georges Michel is already in the region as well as Eugène Isabey whose Honfleur's some paintings are shown to the exhibition the Salon de Paris from 1827. Camille Corot travels in Normandy from 1822, with Gabrièle Smargiassi (1798-1882) in 1830; he paint La ferme Toutain à Honfleur in 1841. Charles Mozin discovers Trouville. Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867) major painter of the Barbizon School works in Normandy in 1832. Jean-Auguste Gagnery (1778-X) paint Arrival of the stagecoach to Honfleur, 1832. Oil on canvas 67x60cm, detail. La Chartreuse of Douai Museum. In deposit at the Eugene Boudin Museum. Above: Gabrièle Smargiassi. Honfleur, the Calvary, côte de Grâce, 1830. Oil on canvas 38x46 cm. The Eugene Boudin Museum, Honfleur, France.

Eugène Boudin from le Havre often crosses the Seine estuary to settle down at the old mother Toutain's Saint-Siméon farmhouse where he attracts his friends. The painters meet themselves: Millet, Français, Achard, Jongkind, Monet, Hamelin, Courbet ... The list of the artists. There from 1850 till 1870 the best artists landscape painters of the time follow one another.

No document shows us the house of the old mother Toutain, the paintings and the pastels of Boudin show us the vicinity and the annexes. Other pictures of Besnus, Bazille, Cals, Corot, Daubigny, Dubourg and Monet depict the place. In 1825 Pierre-Louis Toutain opens an inn: la Ferme Toutain / the Toutain farmhouse. At the very origin of this property, one finds a leper-house, then a chapel maintained by the Capuchin friars and dedicated to Saint-Siméon. In 1848 Pierre-Louis marries Catherine-Virginie who gives a soul to the inn but who also brings her cooker's talents; everybody is still talking of her mackerels in sorrel. The rooms of the residents are decorated with portraits, caricatures, landscapes or poetries drawn with chalk, coal or lead, the whole executed according to their mood. One notices there according to the journalist Alfred Delvau (Le Figaro): “ a Miss Toutain's good portrait made by Armand Gautier; a Stephen Baron's idyll; Achard's small landscapes; a seascape by Français; hens by Besnus; a sailor of Sainte-Marie; Rose's full portrait, the maid, while at work, by Charpentier and maybe too many sketches painted or drawn by Mr Rozier ”. E. Boudin tells us how the mother Toutain removed a piece of Michel-Angel's Last Judgment, which Ménard and Baron had reproduced in a cut-away drawing “ It was horrible! The son Toutain, a giant, died there in a crisis of delirium tremens, terrified by these skinned and panting chaps. Later the old mother Toutain had given a coat of whitewash on these bloody frescoes ”. ( Letter to Jehan Soudan / Director of le Petit Normand. ).

Painters, poets and musicians succeed one another. The meetings often are merry. Eugène Boudin in 1859: “  June 18. Back from Honfleur with Courbet. Had a fantastic evening at de Dreuil' home with Courbet and Schanne: we made a dreadful racket. The stirred brains turned, reason failed. Courbet told us its statement of principles in a not very clear way, naturally ; it was sometimes great. We sang, shouted, so that daytime found us the glass in our hands . We came back making noise in the streets, which is not very praiseworthy, then we lay down in the bed of my poor good people. This morning we felt headachy, which did not prevent us from admiring beautiful things, so that I decided to settle down there this summer if possible. Courbet has already helped me to feel less timid. I shall try large paintings, bigger and in a more elaborated style. Lastly, we fully enter into art. So good luck ”. Eugène Boudin - Jean-Aubry - 1977 pg. 30.

Thanks to Monet, the farmhouse welcomes Frédéric Bazille, Antoine Guillemet (1843-1918), Henri-Charles Guérard (1846-1897) and his wife Eva Gonzales (1849-1883 studied under Manet), the impressionist painter.

The brothers Goncourt stays at the inn as well as Pierre-Firmin Martin who make the connection with the painters of Barbizon.

In 1862 Jongkind goes to Honfleur and the Saint-Siméon farmhouse; there he paints again encouraged by Isabey, Cals and by Madam Fesser. The works having for subject Honfleur date for most part of the year 1862; in 1863, the following works will be drawn from memory or according to sketches and watercolours. (Ill) Jongkind, Louvre Museum.

Claude Monet (then 22 years old), Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, who work together on the coast, begin to completely paint outdoors. Following the example of Constable, Boudin paints in a almost scientific way, taking note during his studies of details such as the direction of the wind. (as drawn up by Charles Baudelaire in his report of the Show of 1859) Monet is strongly impressed by the works of his predecessors. Larousse / HER2000. Eugene Boudin also used photography for his studies: “ you will have made profitable the pretty studies which I have heard of by Lemarcis and which were produced during your stay at Honfleur. You made photographs, say you, that must be of a great profit especially for the groups of figures  ”. (Berthoud to Boudin, 1st décembre1854) Jean-Aubry notes in catalogue of the exhibit : E.B 1992 - Biography by L Manoeuvre.

Emile Renouf paints " orage à Vasouy " & " souper au bord de la Seine " / supper at the edge of the Seine. (ill).

The young Adolphe Marais (ill) from Honfleur frequents the residents of the Saint-Siméon farmhouse, Daubigny gives advices. He particularly admires Corot. Troyon inspires him large paintings.

Cals assiduously attends the last meetings in the Saint-Siméon farmhouse. He brings there, more than every one, this sincere vision Edmond About praised and which made him closer to the tradition of the brothers Le Nain. He came back to Honfleur in 1872 to live there in serenity until his death; in 1879 Cals paints Saint-Siméon directly from life. (Ill) Alain Tapié pg 40.

Emile RENOUF: souper au bord de la Seine / supper at the edge of the Seine. Oil on panel 34.5x25cm. Bequest of E. Boudin, 1895. The Eugène Boudin Museum. Adolphe MARAIS: le retour du troupeau oil on canvas 320x410cm.. The Eugène Boudin Museum. Adolphe-Félix CALS: Honfleur, Saint-Siméon ou La Grande Cour, 1879. Peindre en Normandie collection. Oil on canvas, 35x54 cm.

In 1865 the farmhouse is set for sale by its owner, Monsieur de Varin; in 1870 Mister Chasle, already owner of the White Horse Inn in Honfleur, takes over the business and gives Catherine-Virginie Morin, wife Toutain, notice while authorizing her to take the pictures left in surety by some of the impecunious residents. This is the end of the accommodation for forty francs a month, fed and slept. Mister Chasle will make considerable works: replacement of the thatched roof by a slate roof, construction of a pavilion in front of the sea, paths and gardens... The closing down of the inn and the absence of the old mother Toutain scatters the artists' colony which goes to Deauville, Trouville, Dieppe or Étretat. A time eclipsed by Honfleur, Dieppe is going to take up again, at the beginning of the 1880's, the torch of the new painting .../. Not only the Frenchmen mix there with their English colleagues as during the Restoration time, but the “ revolutionary ” painters get on well with the painters “ society men ”: Pissaro, Renoir, Monet, Thaulow, Gauguin, Boldini, Whistler, Helleu, Sickert ... J-S. Klein. > the representation of the sea bathing and watering places. If it is the end of the fabulous story of the Saint-Siméon farmhouse, the painters will not stop necessarily frequenting Honfleur and gaining widespread acceptance there.

In this naturalist landscape which was a crucible for the physical slope of impressionism, the representation of the elements, the spirit of the Saint-Simeon artistic circle played a major part since it supported the mixture of a sublime but very often hard, sad, harsh nature, with its permanent or temporary inhabitants, seized in the cruel truth of their labour or their idleness.../. The painting which it will have given is always like a self-portrait of the artist, but it is not any more the smooth and quiet mirror of the heart, it is in touch with life .../. Alain Tapié pg 25.

The pre-impressionists disappear between 1870 and 1900. The impressionists receive their inheritance. In 1883 Monet settles down in Giverny.

The Honfleur school strictly speaking was never a school with professors and theory courses. Honfleur attracts the artists. Sisley comes at the beginning of the 20th. Century but regrets the transformation of the Saint-Siméon farmhouse into a comfortable inn. Toulouse-Lautrec comes to Honfleur in 1900 to visit his friend Lucien Guitry. Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, J F Raffaëlli, Seurat, Maximilien Luce, Frank-Myers Boggs, Vallotton, Marquet, Gromaire, Manguin, Friesz, Braque, Celso Lagar, Grau-Sala, Nicolas de Staël ... go past or settle down.

According to Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin Curator of the Museums of Honfleur. Chief Curator of the Eugène Boudin Museum, catalogue of the MEB & G. Jean-Aubry, 1968 & 77, Eugène Boudin - Jacques-Sylvain Klein, la Normandie berceau de l'impressionnisme. - Georges Pillement, les Pré-Impressionnistes. - Robert Schmit E.B/G. Alain Tapié, Chief Curator of the MBA of Caen, Peindre en Normandie XIX^e et XX^e siècles.

 

DUBOURG le repas à Saint-Siméon, detail

BESNUS A Saint-Siméon

COROT Honfleur

Louis-Alexandre DUBOURG le repas à Saint-Siméon. / meal time. The Villa Montebello, Trouville sur mer

Amédée BESNUS A Saint-Siméon. The Eugène Boudin Museum

Oil on canvas 47.5x65cm. Purchased 1992

Camille COROT, Honfleur. The Beaux-Arts Museum, Reims

bellow : C MONET, Honfleur Towing a boat, 1864. Magart Rochester. Xavier LEPRINCE Embarquement de bestiaux sur le 'Passager' dans le port de Honfleur. C F DAUBIGNY Les graves de Villerville, or Pâturage avec vue sur la mer. Constant TROYON, Suresnes . The Louvre museum, Paris

LIST OF THE ARTISTS: Jean Achard - Stéphane Baron (1830/32-1921) studied under his brother - Balthazar Jean - and Léon Cogniet - Amédée Besnus - Eugene BOUDIN - Boyer - Adolphe-Félix Cals - Eugène Louis Charpentier - Gustave Colin - Camille Corot - Maurice Courant - Gustave Courbet - Thomas Couture - Victor Danvin - Charles François Daubigny and his son Karl - Narcisse Diaz De La Peña - Louis-Alexandre Dubourg - Camille Flers - François-Louis Français - Louis Garneray (1783-1857) - Armand Gautier or Amand-Gautier - Théodore Gudin (1802-1880) - Gustave Hamelin - Henri Harpignies - Adolphe Hervier - Paul Huet - Eugène Isabey - Jongkind - Charles Lapostolet - Albert Lebourg - Stanislas Victor Lépine - Louis Matout (1811-1888) - Georges Michel - Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) - Claude Monet - Charles Pécrus - Emile Renouf - Théodule Ribot - Amédée Rosier (1831-X) - Jules Rozier - Alfred Sainte-Marie ( XIX th century ) - Alexandre Schann - Alexandre Thiollet - Constant Troyon ...

 Claude Monet Xavier Leprince

& in E. Boudin G. Jean-Aubry, 1977 page 34: Bagaluboff - Ulysse Louis Auguste Butin (1837/38-1883) - Frantz Charlet (1862-1928). - Edouard Joseph Dantan (1848-1897) - Alexandre Defaux (1826-1900). - Jules Dupré (1811-1889) > Images Joconde and his brother Léon Victor (1816-1879) The Eugene Boudin Museum preserves one work of Victor Dupré - Gottlob Fischer (1829-1905) pupil of Ary Scheffer - André Gill (1840-1885) painter and caricaturist. - Levillain (Ferdinand sculptor and engraver 1837-1905.) & according to the E. Boudin's letter to Jehan Soudan (de Pierrefitte), in G. Jean-Aubry, 1977 page 33 : van Marek / Émile Van Marcke De Lummen (1827-1890) - René Joseph Ménard (1827-1887) writer and painter, pupil of Troyon and Théodore Rousseau - Louis Rémy (1792-1869) - Emile Louis Mathon, pupil of Charles François Daubigny.

 C F Daubigny Constant Troyon

 Jongkind's Diary; domino game at St Siméon/Monet-Jongkind... 1864 October second