Port de Trouville
1880
Medium
etching on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 17.4 × 28.3 cm (6 7/8 × 11 1/8 in.) plate: 22 × 31.7 cm (8 11/16 × 12 1/2 in.) sheet: 25.4 × 35.5 cm (10 × 14 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Carol and James Goodfriend
Accession Number
2021.113.52
Art Historical Context
Maxime Lalanne’s *Port de Trouville* (1880) offers a quiet glimpse of the Normandy coast through the refined medium of etching. Created on wove paper, the print measures just 17. by 28.3 in the image area inviting close viewing of its delicate lines and tonal subtleties. As a leading figure in the nineteenth-century etching revival, Lalanne used the technique’s capacity for fine detail and atmospheric suggestion to evoke the light and activity of a fashionable French harbor town. Etching on wove paper allowed artists to achieve soft gradations and crisp textures that captured both architectur...
About the Artist
Maxime Lalanne
François Antoine Maxime Lalanne (1827–1886) was born in Bordeaux into a family of civil servants, initially pursuing classical studies and a law career. At the Institution Oré, he learned drawing from instructor Saulnier and showed early promise, exhibiting pencil and pastel works at Bordeaux's Philomathique Society in 1850, where he earned a bronze medal. Encouraged by architect Léo Drouyn, Lalan...