Scattered with canvases by masters such as Delacroix, Renoir, Morisot and Pierre Bonnard, Robert and Nadine Schmit's collection, offered at Sotheby's Paris on December 8, also included a set of six works by Eugène Boudin (1824-1898). Among these works were five beach scenes, the genre that made the artist famous, as well as Deauville. The racetrack in 1866, a view of the horse-racing track visited by the Parisian aristocracy from the 1860s.
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It is the latter that seems to have captured the hearts of collectors, achieving the highest price of the sale, as well as setting a new record for the artist. Proposed with an estimate between 300,000 and 500,000 euros, the canvas was bought for 2.37 million euros (including fees), far surpassing Scène de plage, which had held Boudin's current record since 2013 of 1.44 million euros.
The composition divided by a horizon line, somewhat like his well-known seascapes, emphasizes the painter's two focal points: the sky and the crowd. Indeed, more than the horse races, the artist seems captivated by the dense crowd of people, which sweeps across the canvas. This “sea” of men and women contrasts superbly with the sky, which occupies most of the composition and to which the painter has taken the greatest care. His fascination with the sky earned him the nickname "King of the Heavens" by Corot, as well as the admiration of Courbet and Monet.
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This painting highlights Boudin's supreme talent in capturing the effects of the sunlight on the crowd below, and the sensation of the wind billowing the fabrics. It is these qualities of naturalness and immediacy that are often found in Boudin's work that profoundly influenced the Impressionist artists.
Presented at the opening of the sale, the Deauville work was part of the Rothschild collections for a while, before joining that of Robert and Nadine Schmit. An eminent specialist in 19th and 20th century painting, Robert Schmit founded his eponymous gallery in 1964 at 396 rue Saint Honoré in Paris, which quickly became one of the most important in the capital. The work had also been chosen to appear on the cover of the catalog of a Eugène Boudin exhibition, organized in 1984 by the dealer.
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The sale of the Schmit collection, which included works by Kees Van Dogen, Pierre Bonnard, Odile Redon, Gustave Courbet and Eugène Delacroix, totaled 15.77 million including fees.
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