Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville
Framed: 17 1/2 x 20 3/4 x 2 inches (44.45 x 52.71 x 5.08 cm)
- 127
XIX and XX Century French Paintings: Recent Acquisitions, Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York, November 12–December 14, 1968, unnumbered, as Deauville.
European and American Art from Princeton Alumni Collections, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, May 7–June 11, 1972, no. 53, as Regatta at Deauville.
Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9–September 9, 2007, no. 5, as Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville (Bateaux pavoisiers dans le bassin, Deauville).
Magnificent Gifts for the 75th, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 13–April 4, 2010, no cat.
As a regatta (boat race) unfolded, Eugène Boudin recorded the festively decorated boats in the foreground, but this painting’s true subject is movement. Twisting flags, rippling water, and rowing oarsmen are deftly conveyed through small, energetic strokes and wet-on-wet brushwork.
Each August, Boudin stayed with his family in small towns on the Normandy coast and painted life on the seafront, such as these colorful regattas.
With Galerie Allard et Noël, Paris;
With Stephen Hahn, New York, by November 12, 1968 [1];
Eugene B. (1917–2003) and Lucy (née Harvey, 1921–2006) Sydnor, Jr., Richmond, VA, by May 7, 1972–April 1, 1993 [2];
Purchased from Eugene and Lucy Sydnor, Jr. through Martha Parrish, Inc., New
York, by Marion (née Helzberg, 1931–2013) and Henry (1922–2019) Bloch, Shawnee
Mission, KS, April 1, 1993–June 15, 2015 [3];
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
NOTES:
[1] November 12, 1968 is the opening date of XIX and XX Century French Paintings: Recent Acquisitions, an exhibition held at Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York, that included Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville. According to a Hahn family representative, Stephen Hahn’s business records do not survive. See email from Janey Campbell, Music Academy of the West, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, June 3, 2020, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] May 7, 1972 is the opening date of European and American Art from Princeton Alumni Collections, an exhibition to which the Sydnors lent Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville. After Eugene B. and Lucy Sydnor, Jr., divorced in 1986, it is unclear if they retained joint ownership of the painting or if one of them assumed full ownership.
[3] See email from Ann Restak, James Reinish and Associates, Inc., to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, May 26, 2015, NAMA curatorial files. A label from Martha Parrish, Inc., can be found on the panel’s verso.
XIX and XX Century French Paintings: Recent Acquisitions, exh. cat. (New York: Stephen Hahn Gallery, 1968), unpaginated, (repro.), as Deauville.
Hedy B. Landman, ed., European and American Art from Princeton Alumni Collections, exh. cat. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1972), 60, 69, (repro.), as Regatta at Deauville.
Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824–1898 (Paris: Robert Schmit, 1973), no. 3554, pp. 3:356, CIX, CXIV, (repro.), as Deauville. Bateaux pavoisés dans le bassin.
Rebecca Dimling Cochran and Bobbie Leigh, “100 Top Collectors who have made a difference,” Art and Antiques 28, no. 3 (March 2006): 90.
Bobbie Leigh, “Magnificent Obsession,” Art and Antiques 28, no. 6 (June 2006): 60–61, (repro.).
Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection , exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 14, 38, 44–46, 156, (repro.), as Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville (Bateaux pavoisiers dans le bassin, Deauville) .
Alice Thorson, “A Tiny Renoir Began Impressive Obsession,” Kansas City Star 127, no. 269 (June 3, 2007): E4.
“Lasting Impressions: A Tribute to Marion and Henry Bloch,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2007): 11–12.
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Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 59, (repro.), as Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville.
Kelly Crow, “Museum Rewards Donor with Fake Art to Hang at Home,” Wall Street Journal (January 25, 2017): https://www.wsj.com/articles/museum-rewards-donor-with-fake-art-to-hang-at-home-1485370768 .
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Hampton Stevens, “(Not Actually) 12 Things To Do During The Big 12 Tournament,” Flatland: KCPT’s Digital Magazine (March 9, 2017): http://www.flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/sports/not-actually-12-big-12-tournament/ .
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Juliet Helmke, “The Bloch Collection Takes up Residence in Kansas City’s Nelson Atkins Museum,” Blouin ArtInfo International (March 15, 2017): http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/2005267/the-bloch-collection-takes-up-residence-in-kansas-citys .
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Robert D. Hershey Jr., “Henry W. Bloch, Tax-Preparation Pioneer (and Pitchman), Is Dead at 96,” New York Times (April 23, 2019): https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/obituaries/henry-w-bloch-dead.html .
Claire Selvin, “Henry Wollman Bloch, Collector and Prominent Benefactor of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Is Dead at 96,” ArtNews (April 23, 2019): http://www.artnews.com/2019/04/23/henry-bloch-dead-96/ .
Eric Adler and Joyce Smith, “Henry Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block, dies at 96,” Kansas City Star 139, no. 219 (April 24, 2019): 1A.
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Brigid M. Boyle, “Eugène Boudin, The Port of Deauville, ca. 1884, and Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville, 1895,” catalogue entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2022), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.606.5407.
