Oil Painting, 'Boat on Shore', Charles Hoguet, German school, ca. 1845-1868

A boat drawn up on a beach with figures walking away on the right, a lighthouse on a pier in the background.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868

Historical significance: Compare with other marines and because of its rather small format, the present work appears to be most likely an oil sketch rather than a finished painting. It shows a boat on shore with figures walking away on the left foreground and a distant light tower in the background.
The artist chose to dissolve here the forms with his brushstrokes while the cool, almost uniform palette is enlivened by flickers of light on the steady sails.
The technique and palette were probably influenced by the French painter Isabey to whom Hoguet was apprentice for some time in Paris. This composition is also reminiscent of the 17th-century Dutch imagery, which aroused a new interest in Realist painters. Here the painting is particularly close to such artist as Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), who produced similar tormented marines.

Charles Hoguet (1821-1870) was born in Berlin to French parents. He studied first with the seascape painter Wilhelm August Christian Leopold Krause (1802-1864) and later completed his apprenticeship in Paris with Eugène Ciceri (1813-90). He was also later on an apprentice with Eugène Isabey (1803-86) who was also teaching at the same time Eduard Hildebrandt (1817-1868). He is famous for his still lifes, marine paintings and landscapes. He won medals in Paris in 1848 and 1859.

This painting is a fine example of Hoguet marine paintings executed in a cool almost monochrome palette. It shows a boat on a shore in a stormy weather while vanishing figures walk away on the right. The composition and palette is slightly reminiscent of Isabey's technique, but also recall the 17th-century Dutch imagery which aroused a new interest among Realist painters of the 19th century.

1574-1869