This canvas was painted in August–September 1865, during Jongkind's third visit to Honfleur, a town on the Normandy coast, where the younger Claude Monet also worked in the early and mid-1860s. Three years later, in 1868, the critic Théophile Thoré observed: "M. Jongkind’s manner does not appeal to everyone, but it delights all who love spontaneous painting, in which strong feelings are rendered with originality . . . . True painters work at speed, under the influence of impressions."
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Jongkind 1865
[Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, until 1916; sold to The Met]
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Five Centuries of Dutch Art," March 9–April 9, 1944, no. 96.
Huntington, N.Y. Heckschers Art Museum. "European Influence on American Painting of the 19th Century," June 8–29, 1947, no. 22.
Phoenix Art Museum. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Collection: 'The River and the Sea'," February 15, 1967–February 15, 1968, no. 12.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the École Saint-Siméon," October 15–December 5, 1976, no. 9.
Williamstown, Mass. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. "Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the École Saint-Siméon," December 17, 1976–February 13, 1977, no. 9.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 81.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 81.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Modernen Kunst. Vol. 2, 2nd ed. Munich, 1915, pl. 365.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 54.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 133, ill.
Victorine Hefting. Jongkind: sa vie, son oeuvre, son époque. Paris, 1975, p. 166, no. 344, ill., erroneously as in a private collection.
Charles C. Cunningham et al. Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the École Saint-Siméon. Exh. cat., Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass. [Williamstown, Mass.], 1977, p. 40, no. 9, ill., states that it was probably painted during August or September 1865, during Jongkind's third trip to Honfleur; mentions a watercolor of a "somewhat similar" view in the Fogg Art Museum; gives information about the church visible between the two ships.
Patricia Jobe Pierce. Edmund C. Tarbell and the Boston School of Painting, 1889–1980. Hingham, Mass., 1980, p. 118, quotes Tarbell's comments on this picture.
Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 66, 296, 392, 426, no. 81, ill. p. 392 and fig. 84 (color) [French ed., "Impressionnisme: les origines, 1859–1869," Paris].
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 429, ill.
Adolph Stein et al. Jongkind: Catalogue critique de l'œuvre. Vol. 1, Peintures. Paris, 2003, p. 176, no. 380, ill., as "Le Port de Honfleur et l'église Saint-Léonard".
Paul Galvez. Courbet's Landscapes: The Origins of Modern Painting. , New Haven, 2022, pp. 95, 104, fig. 40 (color).
The tower visible between the two ships is that of the church of Saint-Léonard. The church was built in the sixteenth century; the stone tower dates from the eighteenth century (see Cunningham 1976).
One year before Jongking painted The Met's picture he made a watercolor of the same view, which he dated September 12, 1864 (Harvard University Art Museums, 1943.281). In the watercolor, there is a similar boat on the left, but it has two masts rather than three, and with different sails unfurled. There is only one boat on the right in the watercolor, as opposed to two in the painting.
Johan Barthold Jongkind (Dutch, Latrop 1819–1891 La Côte-Saint-André)
1849–50
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