Eugène BOUDIN (1824-1898) Lot n° 260

Portrieux, low tide, 1875 Oil on canvas, signed and dated 75 lower left, annotated Portrieux in black pencil, lower right and numbered 4347 and 4365 on the back. 51,5 x 75 cm Provenance : - Henri Vever (1854 - 1942) - By descent to the present owner Henri Jean Baptiste Eugène Vever jeweller, writer and collector of French art, attached to the Art Nouveau movement, was also a renowned bibliophile and one of the main collectors of pre-war Japanese art. After the annexation of Moselle by Germany in 1871, Henri Vever's family left Metz to settle in Paris, where his father, Jean-Jacques Ernest Vever, bought a jewellery workshop. Henri Vever became an apprentice while attending classes at the École des arts décoratifs in Paris. In 1873, Vever entered the École des Beaux-Arts in the workshops of Aimé Millet and Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1881, he took over his father's studio with his brother. In 1885, Vever bought his first paintings... In February 1897, he sold his collection of paintings, which included several by Claude Monet, including La Plage de Sainte-Adresse, and Alfred Sisley. In 1906-1908, Vever published La bijouterie française au XIXe siècle (1800-1900), a reference work on the subject. In 1913, he wrote, with Georges Marteau, an article on Persian miniatures for the 1912 exhibition on Muslim arts. A great collector of French jewellery, he donated his collections to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The Maison Vever only closed in 1982. His collection of Japanese art, especially prints, is one of the most important ever assembled. He sold part of it during the First World War to Matsukata K?jir? of which a large part is preserved in the National Museum in Tokyo. The rest of his collection was mainly dispersed during the 1970s. Sources: Internet, Wikipedia.