Dessine-moi un mouton

Le vieux port - Honfleur. Picture TR. Notice the light?

Honfleur - It’s About the Light

I read once - sometime ago - that Impressionist artists loved the quality of the light in Honfleur, Normandy. The way it arrives sharply from the estuary, dapples on the water, shards through the slate tiled buildings. I think my photograph (above) of the old harbour might actually demonstrate this beautifully. You’re welcome (@Tim Robson - reasonable rates for reproduction rights if you’re a cheap arse and can’t be bothered going yourself).

Yes dear readers, we’re into one of Tim’s infrequent forays into art criticism. But, like some overfed, underbred Yorkshireman holding forth after several pints of frothy ale and a chicken madras, “I know what I like.”* The rest of this article may be a bit rough and ill-focused. Bit like Impressionism, in fact.

Tim’s Impressionism

Normandy plays an important role in the development of impression art. Impressionists, when they weren’t trying to get unemployed actresses to take their clothes off for ‘life studies’, liked to paint out of doors - en plein air - and so light, and the quality of it, was really important. When I was younger I used to claim I liked impressionist artists. It was fashionable. However, as my tastes have matured and become designedly my own, I’m less enamoured these days. I prefer a more literal approach to a painting which can then be interpreted.

My notes from Honfleur are a little more damning - as befitting being written in a bar: “Impressionism seems to be an artist forgetting how to paint and covering this with obfuscation and swirls.”

Yes, I’ve just had a short break in Normandy. Honfleur is where one of the godfathers of impressionism, Eugène Boudin, was born. There’s a pretty good museum in the town dedicated to his work and other Impressionists. Extolling the light thereabouts, Boudin dragged a coterie of young men in the latter part of the nineteenth century to this part of France. Men like Claude Monet. And together they painted - and repainted - seascapes, beaches, harbours and buildings, of Honfleur and other towns along the Côte Fleurie. Outside and capturing the light, you see.

So, wearing my black polo neck sweater, pea coat and artistic flat cap, I visited the Eugène Boudin musée in Honfleur and the somewhat grander Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Both have large Impressionist collections. Frankly, I’m all Pissarro’d and Sisley’d out. I had the freedom to be slow, to be quick, to linger over paintings I liked and to pass by those that didn’t interest me (basically anything with fruit or tedious biblical allegories). However, both galleries are worth a visit. Each contain copious non-Impressionistic paintings amongst their roster. French art galleries just do it right don’t they?

(Rouen town however is a bit of a clown show. Beggars and drunks acting out their dizzy versions of Les Misérables. Check out my searing Third Battle of Mons for some more of this urban theatre vibe.)

The Bell Tower Honfleur: Tim v Monet

One thing I noticed though about all these Impressionists: Everyone who held a painting stick seems to have had a go at rendering The Bell Tower in Honfleur. Hell, me too… So let’s start by comparing Monet and Tim Robson shall we? First up our old mec Claude:-

Clock tower Honfleur - Monet

Not bad Monet - bit squiggly for my tastes though. More bell-end than bell tower.

Now me… I literally did the drawing opposite in 30 seconds. I bet Monet took days to do his misjudged dab-fest. Piece of piss this art game.

But the gods of talent long ago asked me to choose between art and literary fame. I chose both and so got neither. However, some vestiges of skill still remain. More in the written word than the art world to be honest but - I’m available for commissions. I don’t charge much.

Same goes for my gigalo skills frankly.

Awkward Pivot: Which Paintings to See?

So, what pictures would I actually recommend from (the many) that I saw?

Le Martyre de Sainte Agnes - Joseph Court

The monumental Le Martyre de Sainte Agnes - Joseph Court 1864 (shown above in Rouen, picture TR). Clearly the Roman theme attracted me. Diocletian was one of the better emperors but became a bit of a bastard towards the Christians in his final years. Plug: Read my Roman articles, scholarly and yet still accessible.

Place de la Haut-Vielle Tour a Rouen - Giuseppe Canella 1824.

Rouen Cathedral. Grey - Claude Monet. This one grew on me. As I walked away from it, the indistinct shapes became whole and I - for once - ‘got’ impressionism.

Hetraie a La Côte de Grâce - Eugène Boudin (can’t find this online). One of his better ones. Can’t remember it though. This is a great article, isn’t it? Seek and ye shall find and comment on it below. Why was I right?

François Louise Français - Les Hêtres de La Côte de Grâce (can’t find this online either.) I’ve decided I like pictures of trees. In particular, I like pictures of trees in Autumn. I wrote a poem about this once. Crap but shows I’m sensitive. ‘Want another glass of wine, my dear while I talk about art and, er, what are you doing later?’

Light, shade, impressionism, abstraction and poetry. I’m the worthy shoemaker in the Renaissance looking up from his workbench and shouting “It’s all bollocks, isn’t it?”

But yet I go back every year. Honfleur may be touristy but, go out of season, and the old magic that drew these painters here still works. Works on me anyway. It’s a unique and mysterious place.

And I got through all this without mentioning Satie. He’s got a museum in town too. Never been.

Read On Mes Amis

If you want to pursue the French aspect of my corpus of writing then my Parisienne walkways series - Paris Profond - is the ideal place to start. Try the walk to Opéra or the more magestic walk to Bastille.

Or, sticking to the arty theme, my thoughts on Doisneau’s Le Baiser de l’hôtel de ville. Paris then. Paris now. The Paris of my youth. How art captures a moment.

And a song to finish (you off)

Finally, to round out the Gallic theme, watch one of my favourite French songs below as a well chosen companion piece to accompany this article - the monumental rock masterpiece that is Draw me a Sheep (Dessine-Moi Un Mouton).

Quotidian Notes

1) *Actually, digression alert, I was born in Yorkshire so I can laugh at myself (well, them really, but, whatever). Can’t do the accent though. When I try it sounds like some generic ‘trouble at t’mill’ version of a Northern accent soft southerners do to entertain themselves with at posh dinner parties when the subject of Brexit voters come up.

2) Revised, scabrous’d up in August 2026 along with numerous algorithm-pleasing internal links. Hey Google Bots! I’m a bloody authority on this stuff although I wear my knowledge but lightly. Reader, click on my thoughts on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Stoic does not even come close to describing this head-to-head intellectual cage-match.