Eugène Le Poittevin - Study Of A Bather At étretat (salon Of 1865)

Drawing by Eugène Le Poittevin (1806-1870) depicting a bather at Étretat.

Study of a detail for the painting "Les Bains de Mer, Plage d'Étretat", Le Poittevin's great masterpiece, presented at the Salon of 1865 and the Exposition Universelle of 1867. This painting, purchased by Emperor Napoleon III, was recovered and sold at Sotheby's on December 3, 2020 for a record price of €226,800.

Dimensions: drawing: 5 x 5.5 cm; sheet: 25 x 32 cm

Naval painter, "inventor of Étretat" in the words of Alexandre Dumas, Le Poittevin prefigured Impressionism. After an established official career and numerous paintings exhibited at the Salon, he devoted a significant part of his output to Normandy. This was particularly true of Étretat, then a small fishing village, which he helped to introduce to his friends among the Parisian artistic elite. While Baudelaire mocked this painter for "painting too well", his bold choice of framing, reminiscent of Japanese prints, his setting aside of romanticism and the primary importance given to activities and the human figure made him a player in modernity.

In 1872, shortly after his death, his friend the painter Eugène Bellangé wrote of his drawings: "Most of these sketches, full of jets, elegance and charm, yield nothing to the painted studies. Many are masterfully handled, and with the rarest facility."