Étaples art colony

The Etaples art colony consisted of artists working in the Étaples area of northern France at the turn of the 20th century. The colony had its heyday between 1880–1914, after which it was disrupted by World War I. Although broadly international, it was made up mainly of English-speakers from North America, Australasia and the British Isles. While some artists settled in the area, other visitors stayed only a season, or an even shorter time, as they journeyed from art colony to art colony along the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. There was no uniformity of style, although there were several shared interests. While most painters left the town in 1914, artistic activity of varied quality was continued during the war by volunteers, artists in uniform and war artists. With peace, some former residents returned to their homes and the persistence of a small colony attracted a few visitors, although little innovative work now resulted.

The first French artists to paint in the area were those particularly associated with open air painting. Charles-François Daubigny retreated there from the outbreak of the Paris Commune in 1871, where he spent his time drawing and executed at least one oil painting of beached boats (Gallery 3). Norman-born Eugène Boudin frequently painted along the Opal Coast and spent long periods in both Étaples and at Berck. Henri Le Sidaner, who was brought up in Dunkirk, spent the years 1885–1894 in the town and represented the area in all seasons. There he was joined between 1887-93 by his childhood friend Eugène Chigot (1860-1923), who shared his interest in atmospheric light and afterwards went to stay in Paris Plage.

In 1887 also, Eugène Vail (1857-1934), moved to Étaples and spent the winter there, lodging with his Irish friend Frank O'Meara, whose letters home give us information about the colony at that time. Amongst the other artists working there were Boudin and Francis Tattegrain, several more Irish, the English Dudley Hardy, the Americans Walter Gay and L. Birge Harrison, and the Australian Eleanor Ritchie, whom Harrison met there and married. While the rest were painting tranquil figures down at the harbour or in the woods, O'Meara describes Vail as ‘painting the deck of a fishing boat in a heavy sea, life-size’. This was "Ready, About!", which won a first-class gold medal in the Paris Salon of 1888. In the following decade, Vail's Norwegian associate Frits Thaulow was to spend some time in Étaples while André Derain stopped there and in Montreuil-sur-mer during the summer of 1909.

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