174 - "Eugène LE POITTEVIN (1806–1870) Pleading Female Nude. Graphite on paper. 12.4 x 8.6 cm A marine painter and, in the words of Alexandre Dumas, the “inventor of Étretat,” Le Poittevin foreshadowed Impressionism. After establishing a successful official career and exhibiting numerous paintings at the Salon, he devoted a significant portion of his work to Normandy. This was particularly true of Étretat, then a small fishing village, which he helped introduce to his friends among the Parisian artistic elite. Although Baudelaire mocked this painter for “painting too well,” his bold choice of compositions—reminiscent of Japanese prints—his departure from Romanticism, and the primary importance he gave to human activity and the human figure made him a pioneer of modernity. In 1872, shortly after his death, his friend, the painter Eugène Bellangé, wrote about his drawings: “Most of these sketches, full of spontaneity, elegance, and charm, are in no way inferior to his painted studies. Many are executed with a master’s touch and a rarity of ease.””