The Square of the Church of Saint Vulfran in Abbeville

Eugène Boudin

1884

Oil on panel .

44.5 x 37 cm

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Although Eugène Boudin always felt particularly attached to his native Normandy, where he regularly worked, in the middle of the century he began to travel frequently around Brittany and northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1884, while staying in Abbeville, a town north of Amiens in the region of Picardy, he produced this small panel painting of an urban scene entitled The Square of the Church of Saint Vulfran. The rigid, geometrised façade of the flamboyant Gothic style church that dominates the right side of the painting contrasts with the fluidity of the clouds, which occupy most of the left-hand side of the composition on account of the very low horizon line and envelop the entire painting with their luminosity.

As with most of his small works, it was almost certainly painted from life, as the artist reserved his studio for larger paintings. Boudin, who taught Claude Monet to paint en plein air and exerted great influence on the Impressionists, with whom he showed his work at the group’s first major exhibition in 1874, eschewed picturesque description in his final period in order to directly capture atmospheric and light effects. As the artist himself stated, “three brushstrokes executed outdoors are worth much more than ten days painting in the studio.”

Paloma Alarcó

Listen

Related works

Eugène Boudin

Figures on the Beach in Trouville

1869

Eugène Boudin

Étretat. The Cliff of Aval

1890

Eugène Boudin

The River Touques at Saint-Arnoult

1895

Eugène Boudin

Venice, The Grand Canal

1895

Private and/or didactic use

The Square of the Church of Saint Vulfran in Abbeville

Eugène Boudin

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

The exploitation rights of the images belong to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza permits the images to be downloaded in high resolution from its website for private or educational/academic purposes, subject to the terms of use below.

For commercial uses (including publications) and advertising, requests must be addressed to the Museum Photo Archive archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org, which manages the distribution worldwide of its images and together with its rights of reproduction.

Terms of use

If the image is to be reproduced, the work must be reproduced in full. Users may only reproduce a detail or cropped section of the work after obtaining written permission from the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza. In such cases, the image credits must clearly indicate the word “detail”.
The image may not be manipulated, changed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, the reproduction may not be superimposed with any other images or text.
The use of images is only granted for private or educational/academic purposes. Use for educational purposes is defined as the non-commercial and non-advertising use of images in presentations, lectures, school or university projects, and academic or research publications of which no more than 1,000 not-for-profit copies are printed.
If the images are being used for purposes other than those described above, prior written permission from the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza is required.
When an image owned by the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza is reproduced, all reproductions or the list of photographic credits must include the following: the name of the artist, title, date, © Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
If the image is reproduced the user must send two free copies of the publication to the Rights Reproduction Department of the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza. They should be addressed to: Photographic Archive, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid, Spain.
The user agrees to use the image from the website solely and exclusively for the purposes outlined in paragraph 3 and in accordance with these terms.

I have read and accept the Terms of Use

Download image

Commercial use

The Square of the Church of Saint Vulfran in Abbeville

Eugène Boudin

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

El Archivo Fotográfico del Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza ofrece el servicio de venta y alquiler de material fotográfico de todas las obras de su Colección Permanente, así como de las obras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza en depósito en el Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza.

Para solicitar imágenes o permisos con fines comerciales, publicitarios o para cualquier uso distintos los considerados como fines académicos o educativos (la utilización no comercial de las imágenes para presentaciones, conferencias, trabajos escolares o universitarios, y publicaciones académicas o de investigación con una tirada inferior a 1.000 ejemplares y sin ánimo de lucro) así como para solicitar imágenes de mayor calidad de las disponibles a través de la web del Museo, por favor, póngase en contacto con el Archivo de Imágenes del museo (archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org)

El Archivo de Imágenes del museo es el departamento que gestiona la distribución mundial de las imágenes de las obras del Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza y sus derechos de reproducción. Las tarifas se calculan en función de la naturaleza y el tipo del uso propuesto, así como de la disponibilidad de la imagen solicitada. Todas las solicitudes de escaneados o nuevos fotografiados serán revisados caso por caso. Una vez aprobados, se aplicará una tarifa adicional. El re-fotografiado de una obra requerirá un mínimo de seis semanas para estar listo.