Saint-Valéry-Sur-Somme. L’embouchure De La Somme 1891

Eugène Boudin captured Saint-Valéry-Sur-Somme in a wash of oil paints, evoking a landscape bathed in the warm hues of a sunset. The canvas is dominated by horizontal bands of colour, the sky and sea merging in a seamless transition from fiery oranges to softer yellows. Boudin's formal construction prompts us to consider the philosophical implications of his atmospheric technique. The dissolution of firm outlines destabilizes traditional landscape conventions, where clarity and detail were prized, suggesting an engagement with the fleeting, subjective experience of perception. The painting rejects fixed meanings, instead becoming a field of continuous visual sensation. Ultimately, it is the materiality of paint, loosely applied to evoke the transient effects of light and atmosphere, which enables Boudin to challenge our understanding of space and representation. We recognize that art is always open to interpretation.