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Johan Barthold Jongkind is generally recognised as being one of the major forerunners of Impressionism. Although born in Holland he became a pupil of Eugene Isabey in Paris and his work was greatly admired by both Boudin and Monet for the freshness of his palette and freedom of brushwork.
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A frequent visitor to the Normandy coast, Jongkind found his paintings of this area formed the foundation for the most successful period of his career. He visited Honfleur for the third time in the summer of 1865 staying at Isabey’s farm at Sainte Adresse. In a letter written in August that year Jongkind described his visit to Honfleur: ‘Eight days ago I left Paris and here I am at Honfleur, the place to which I return, as always, with new pleasure. It is a little seaport where there are ten or twenty ships of all nations; not counting the fishing vessels of the same nations. I tell you that this is very interesting for my studies’ (Moreau-Nélaton, Jogngkind, raconté par lui-même 1918, p 88).
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Jongkind is generally recognised as being one of the major forerunners of Impressionism, having first studied under Andreas Schelfhout in The Hague and then with Isabey and Picot in Paris, to whom he owes much of his style.
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Early success at the Salon was soon marred by Jongkind's acute nervous disposition and the constant need to seek diversion in Parisian nightlife. Isabey attempted to protect him from this life of dissipation and ruin by taking him to Normandy in the summers of 1850 and 1851. Increasingly Jongkind sought relief from his mental condition by turning to painting views of Dutch canals and night scenes, which combined with a failure to receive any recognition at the 1855 Exposition Universelle, led to his return to Holland.
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The hoped for improvement in Jongkind's mental and physical condition failed to materialise whilst in Holland, resulting in his friends and the dealer Pierre (Pere) Martin raising money for a return to Paris in 1869 thought the sale of his paintings. Stability was finally brought to Jongkind's life by the Dutch drawing teacher Josephine Fesser who was to remain his constant companion for the next thirty years.
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Jongkind's work was greatly admired by Boudin and Monet, whom he met at Le Havre in 1862,
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