Seated Lady in Black, Trouville 1865

Eugène Boudin likely made this watercolor sketch, Seated Lady in Black, in Trouville, France, sometime in the mid-19th century. Boudin has quickly captured a fashionable woman at leisure. What might seem like a slight work actually speaks volumes about industrialization and labor. Consider her clothing. The dark fabric of her dress, likely dyed with newly available synthetic colors, suggests a certain social status, and was made possible by textile mills. This was a period when fashion was rapidly evolving, fueled by mass production. The watercolor medium itself allowed Boudin to quickly capture these fleeting impressions. His light touch mirrors the ephemeral nature of fashion trends themselves. The chair she sits on, perhaps mass-produced, also speaks to changing modes of consumption. By focusing on these details, Boudin's sketch invites us to consider the complex relationships between art, industry, and the everyday lives of people like this anonymous sitter.