Shoreline with Rising Tide, October 1893

Eugène Boudin made this oil on canvas painting called "Shoreline with Rising Tide, October," in 1893. Boudin lived in a France that was undergoing rapid social and economic change. Looking at this painting, one might consider the burgeoning tourist industry that transformed coastal towns, like those in Normandy. The leisure activities of the middle class became a popular subject for artists, and the shoreline became a space where different social classes mixed. Boudin’s work captures that intersection, portraying both the working people who made their living from the sea and the vacationers who sought recreation on the beach. The composition, with its broad sky and the receding shoreline, invites the viewer to contemplate the changing landscape of 19th-century France. To understand the social dimensions of Boudin’s paintings, one could turn to period guidebooks, travel accounts, and social histories. These sources can shed light on the cultural values and social practices that shaped the artist's vision.