Eugène Isabey
Paris 1803 – Montévrain 1886
Study of a boat
Pencil.
Inscribed Le Havre 1826 lower left.
291 x 374 mm – 11 7/16 x 14 3/4 in.
Provenance – Alfred Normand collection, his mount.
Exhibition – Eugène Isabey 1803 – 1886, Château de Dieppe, 20 juin – 15 septembre 1966, n° 63.
Literature – Pierre Miquel, Eugène Isabey 1803 – 1886, Catalogue raisonné. La Marine au XIXe siècle, Maurs la Jolie, éditions de la Martinelle, 1980, p.94, fig.46, illustrated.
This Study of a boat can be dated to the very first years of Isabey’s career: after a golden youth, the young man was cut off supplies by his father and forced to use his natural talent for drawing in order to make a living. Settling in Normandy, young Isabey began to sell modest drawings of fish and boats. This study bears a charming testimony of Isabey’s hesitant start, before he became “our best marine painter” according to writer and critic Theophile Gautier.
Condition report- Very good condition, minor stains in the upper part and the lower part.
