Plein Air: A Discussion With the Founder by Bob Hallsr

Eugène Boudin: On the Beach of Deauville, 1869.

I had just returned from a holiday in France, where I had an unsettling experience. While touring Paris, the other day, I heard a loud scream, then someone calling my name which seemed to originate in a cemetery in the Montmartre Quarter. Looking around I spotted the Saint-Vincent Cemetery. The source was an audible protest from a grave marked with a stone with the name of Eugene Boudin (1824-1898). I not sure of the reason for this outburst but I was willing to bet that Boudin’s ghost heard about our home town’s Plein Air celebration held every year in Easton, MD. It seems that after several decades of misunderstanding his concept of the Plein Air art movement, he couldn’t take it any longer.

“Monsieur Hall,” he said, “I tried to reach you in my favorite town of Deauville but you did not hear me. I know that you feel the same way as I, that some Americans do not understand my art movement,” especially this group that calls itself “Plein Air” artists.

The immediate cause of his outburst was a so called “Plein Air” painting depicting a truck moving about the city of Easton, MD.   “What does this noisy monstrosity of metal on wheels spewing fumes in the air have to do with theinterplay of the sky, the earth, water and subjects,” Boudin said. “M. Boudin, I agree with you, it seems that they have taken the expression “ Plein Air” and applied it to anything painted outside.

M. Hall, our desire was to capture roadsides, mountains, the seaside and fields in their natural, thriving elements, we also experimented with reproducing the light, shadows and colors of the moment as the changed during the day. How does this fit depicting painting portraits and houses?”

“M Boudin, I understand your confusion, my understanding of your movement was to to capture the charm of the landscape using energetic brush strokes and apply the magic of capturing the fleeting and beautiful effects of light, shadow and colors peculiar to the place. Plein Air focused on all of the natural elements in a contrasting amalgamation. I’m also wondering how in the the dickens Plein Air artist’s competitions include still life, a building or a truck.”

M. Hall “what do American cowboys have to do with Plein Air art?” “Cowboys, M. Boudin? Oh, you mean the quick draw competitions. The artists compete with one another to finish a painting in two hours or less.” “Well, M. Bob, this is another misconception of our intent to capture the same light especially in the early morning and early evening when the light changed dramatically after a short time. Capturing light and shadows and moving clouds was never supposed to be subject to a stop watch.”

“Oh oh, M. Boudin, it’s worse than that, are you sitting down? “Sitting down, eh, M. Bob do you not recollect that I am lying down.”   “To make matters even worse, M. Boudin, the contestants are given a small area to paint, usually in the middle of a town, far removed from natural landscape and seascape settings, that you and your Impressionist friends painted so magnificently.”

“Bob, what can we do to remedy these false impressions?” “I can’t help you, M. Boudin, because this misdirection has become somewhat of a standard in the American art world. Try to remember all of the good times and the esteem that you were held by your friends Corot, Monet and Baudelaire. You can sleep well knowing that you were also the bridge between Naturalism and Impressionism. We can only pray that a countermovement will redress all of these wrongs.