Segelbåtar vid kusten, Honfleur (Sailboats on the coast, Honfleur)

Julia Beck will forever be associated with the outstanding compositions she produced as a member of the legendary Scandinavian artists’ colony in Grez-sur-Loing (a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department, just south of Paris). It was here, primarily during the years 1882–1885, that Beck painted some of her most acclaimed works, such as Höstdag/Autumn Day (1883, oil on canvas, 77 x 108 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), Vid kanalen-sommarmotiv från Grez/By the Canal – Summer Scene from Grez (1883, oil on canvas, 33 x 21 cm, private collection) and Utsikt från Grez, Pension Laurent/View from Grez, Pension Laurent (1885, oil on panel, 52 x 36 cm, Norrköping Museum of Art, Norrköping, Sweden).

It was also in Grez, in the company of other now legendary Swedish artists such as August Strindberg (1849-1912, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, photographer and painter), Carl Larsson (1853-1919, painter representative of the Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau movements), Karl Nordström (1855-1923, landscape painter) and Nils Kreuger (1858-1930, landscape painter), that Beck’s landscape painting found its unique expression. For the sake of equality, it should perhaps be mentioned that the colony was also populated by a number of talented female artists including, in addition to Beck, Karin Bergöö (1859-1928, artist and designer who often collaborated with her husband) and Tekla Lindeström (1856-1937, xylographer), who would both soon marry Carl Larsson and Karl Nordström, respectively.

However, Beck would soon discover another region in France that would prove to be of great importance to her continued artistic development: Normandy. When a cholera epidemic broke out in Paris in the summer of 1884, most artists fled the city. Some of the Swedes were forced to return home, but Beck had other plans. On July 9 she said goodbye to her friends Per Hasselberg (1850–1894, Swedish sculptor who received critical acclaim mainly for his delicate and allegorical nudes, copies of which are widely distributed in public places and private homes in Sweden) and Eva Bonnier (1857–1909, Swedish painter and philanthropist) at Gare Montparnasse and travelled by train to the small coastal village of Carolles in Normandy, where the artist Per Ekström (1844-1935, landscape painter known for his atmospheric scenes with sunsets in barren or deserted places) lived. Beck’s arrival coincided with the stays of fellow artists Georg Arsenius (1855-1908, painter with whom Beck would have a secret relationship around 1884-1886) and Johan Tirén (1853-1911, painter, specialising in scenes of rural life in Northern Sweden, whose wife, Gerda, Beck had depicted the previous year in the aforementioned masterpiece Höstdag), forming a small Swedish artist colony. Beck remained in Carolles, painting seascapes like Maritime Scene from Normandy (oil on canvas, 52 x 109 cm, private collection), until mid-August, when she returned to Paris.

In the years that followed, Beck would return to Normandy, where towns and villages along the English Channel and Atlantic coast, in particular, became popular destinations. One of these destinations was Honfleur, a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France (located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from Le Havre). Honfleur is especially known for its old port, characterised by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted frequently by artists. Among the many notable painters having depicted Honfleur could be counted Gustave Courbet (1819–1877, painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting), Eugène Boudin (1824–1898, marine painter and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores, as well as one of the first French landscape artists to paint outdoors) and Claude Monet (1840–1926, French painter and founder of Impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it).

Where the French landscape painters went, their Scandinavian counterparts would follow. A list of the pioneers would include names like Frits Thaulow (1847– 1906, Norwegian Impressionist painter, best known for his naturalistic depictions of landscape), Carl Skånberg (1850-1883, Swedish painter who, despite a serious illness that caused him a great deal of suffering, was a prolific painter and one of the first artists in Sweden to be influenced by Impressionism), Carl Fredrik Hill (1849–1911, Swedish painter and draftsman known for the atmospheric landscapes he painted during the first four years of his career, and for the thousands of drawings of fantastical scenes he created after he became mentally ill in his late twenties) and Wilhelm von Gegerfelt (1844-1920, Swedish landscape painter and close friend of Carl Fredrik Hill).

Bo Wingren, PhD (1934-2024, Swedish art historian whose doctoral thesis focused on Nordic artists in Normandy, 1850-1900), writes (in Tillbaka till Normandie. Nordiska konstnärer i Normandie 1850-1900, 1992):

In contrast to Le Havre, Honfleur, on the south side of the Seine estuary, is a well-preserved picturesque old port town. The inner harbour, Vieux Bassin, is lined with ancient buildings. Narrow alleys lead into a cluster of houses climbing up the slope towards Côte de Grace. From here, you can see the entire Seine Bay with Le  Havre and Cap de la Hève in the background. Artists, poets and tourists began to find their way to Honfleur at around the same time as Trouville, i.e. before the middle of the 19th century. […] From 1874 onwards, we find several Nordic artists here, such as Thaulow, Collett, Hermelin, Skånberg and others. It was probably the many Norman motifs at the 1874 and 1875 salons that attracted their attention. […] For about ten years, […] Monet and many others worked in this area. It was these ‘St Siméon colonists’ who attracted other artists, not least foreigners, to ‘La Corniche Normande’, the beautiful coast between Honfleur and Trouville.

Julia Beck was no exception. She too fell in love with Honfleur’s picturesque surroundings, which she depicted in numerous drawings and paintings. Although Segelbåtar vid kusten, Honfleur (Sailboats on the Coast, Honfleur) is undated, there is much to suggest that it was painted shortly after the turn of the century. The elongated panorama format and the depiction of the lighthouse link it, for example, to Hamnen i Honfleur, Frankrike/The Harbour at Honfleur, France (oil on canvas, 38.5 x 112 cm, private collection), which has been dated to ‘circa 1901’.

Signed (lower right corner) ‘Julia Beck’ and inscribed (lower left corner) ‘Honfleur’.

Provenance

Private collection, France.

Uppsala Auktionskammare, Stockholm, Important Sale, 12 June 2025, lot 786.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above sale).