Henri CASSINELLI - Boats near Honfleur

Henri CASSINELLI
Le Havre, 1833 - late 19th century

Oil on canvas
50 x 65 cm (65 x 75 cm with frame)
Signed and dated lower right "H. Casinelli / 1867".
Fine 19th-century carved and gilded wood frame

Established in Le Havre, his father had opened an engraving store on the Quai d'Orléans in 1828, and later a painting store on the same quay. Henri Cassinelli painted seascapes of the port of Le Havre, then of the coast near Honfleur, in a style close to that of Boudin.
He was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Durand-Brager in Paris, but learned most from Boudin. They painted together on the Normandy coast, and we even know of several canvases painted in the 1860s co-signed "Boudin Casinelli" (Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle and Musée Eugène-Boudin, Honfleur). Boudin is known to have painted skies in Casinelli's paintings.
While it's not clear what Casinelli brought to Boudin, a letter from Jongkind to Boudin mentions the Dutch painters Casinelli told Boudin about. Cassinelli was highly regarded by enthusiasts in his day precisely for the descriptive precision of his boats. For a time, the two friends simply drew and painted together on the same motifs, and Boudin was also able to help his friend by appending his signature at the bottom of certain paintings.
In our painting, we can see a number of boats, with one in the center bearing the letter "H" on the sails and the edge indicating the port of Honfleur. In the distance, the region's steep coastline on the right and a dike with a lighthouse on the left. Barges and a steamboat (on the left) can also be seen on either side. Also remarkable in this painting are the beautiful sky with its clouds and the beautiful reflection in the water of the boat in the foreground.
The painting is dated 1867. A similar painting, dated 1868, was auctioned in Marseille in 2008.

Ref: K1I2LQCZ3V