Entrance to the Port of Honfleur

Along with Eugène-Louis Boudin (see his Approaching Storm), Johan Barthold Jongkind brought a new spirit to the painting of coastal scenes. In content, palette, and technique, the works of these two older artists played an important part in the development of Impressionism. Claude Monet knew Boudin well and adopted him as his mentor, but he claimed that it was Jongkind who “educated his eye.” Though they painted their final compositions in the studio, both Boudin and Jongkind strove to retain the freshness of their plein-air (outdoor) sketches.