Johan Barthold Jongkind (Dutch, 1819-1891)Sortie du port de Honfleur (Leaving the port of Honfleur) Signed and dated 'Jongkind 1866' (lower right)Oil on canvas 58 x 80cm (22 13/16 x 31 1/2in).Footnotes:ProvenancePrivate collection, France;Anon. sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 11 March 1988, no. 56;Kunsthandel Ivo Bouwman B.V., Den Haag;Private collection, The Netherlands;Kunsthandel Ivo Bouwman B.V., Den Haag.ExhibitedLondon, Stoppenbach & Delestre, French XIXth and XXth Century Paintings, 1989, no. 16.Dordrecht, Johan Barthold Jongkind, 28 October 2017-27 May 2018.LiteratureVictorine Hefting, Jongkind, Amsterdam, 1992, p. 88, illustrated.Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin, Jongkind au fil de l'eau, Paris, 1994, p. 13, illustrated.A. Stein, S. Brame, F. Lorenceau and J. Sinizergues, Jongkind: Catalogue critique de l'ouevre: Peintures, tome I, Paris, 2003, no. 436, illustrated p. 193.Often described as the Father of Impressionism, Johan Jongkind was born in Lattrop, one of ten children, and showed real artist merit from an early age. Jongkind enrolled at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague in 1836 under the direction of Andreas Schelfhout, and in 1845 was introduced by Schelfhout to Eugène Isabey. The following year Jongkind left for Paris and settled in Place Pigalle, supported by an annual stipend from the Prince of Orange. By 1850, Jongkind was exhibiting at the Paris Salons, but he chose to show his work in the sections devoted to French artists, rather than acknowledge his Dutch heritage. His increasingly avant-garde style, characterised by short rapid brushstrokes (which was to be so influential on the Impressionists) was not popular with the critics, and led to the artist experiencing intense periods of self-doubt which led to alcoholism and financial insecurity. In 1855, following the death of his mother and the withdrawal of the stipend, Jongkind returned to Holland. However, he had not been forgotten by his friends in Paris and in 1860 a group of around 80 artists led by Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny arranged a sale of their work to raise funds to enable him to return to France. Upon his return he settled in Montparnasse where he became friends with Joséphine Fesser-Borrhee. This was the beginning of a critical and lifelong relationship that provided the artist both moral and, probably, financial support, and gave him the confidence to pursue his work even in the light of criticism and rejection from the Salon.In 1862 Jongkind became a member of the Société des Aquafortistes. The importance of this society was not only that it promoted etching as a serious art form, but because it also was an early model of cooperation among independent artists whose work straddled the line between mainstream academic taste and experimental exploration. He also met Claude Monet while visiting Normandy. 'His painting' Monet recalled, 'was too new and too artistic in tone to be rightly appreciated in 1862. Also, no one knew less than he how to show one's qualities. He was a good man, very simple, speaking very bad French, and very shy...He asked to see my sketches, invited me to go work with him, explained to me the how and why of his manner and completed the teachings I had received from [Eugène] Boudin. From this moment on [Jongkind] was my true master, and it is to him that I owe the definitive education of my eye.'1Two years later Jongkind was working again with Monet in and around Honfleur - where the present lot was painted in 1866. Monet was impressed by his working method of making sketches en plein air to be used as notes for when back in the studio. Similarly, his habit of painting the same scene at different times of the day or in different weather conditions was to have a profound effect on Monet.Still, Jongkind failed to find favour with the critics in Paris and he was rejected again from the Salon in 1873. He determined to leave the capital and by the 1880s, he was spending the summer months in the south of France where his landscapes, often in watercolour, proved more popular and sales increased. But this respite was short lived as by early 1891, fuelled by alcoholism and depression, his mental state had deteriorated. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Egrève and died in February 1891.1F. Thiébault-Sisson, 'Claude Monet, an Interview' Le Temps, Paris, November 27, 1900, p. 3.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
