Un Grain à Trouville (Squall at Trouville)
1874/1875
Medium
etching and aquatint in black on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 16 x 24.1 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.) sheet: 26.7 x 41.2 cm (10 1/2 x 16 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Helena Gunnarsson Buhot Collection
Accession Number
1995.54.30
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Félix-Hilaire Buhot's *Un Grain à Trouville (Squall at Trouville)*, created around 1874–1875, captures the raw drama of a sudden coastal storm at the fashionable Normandy resort of Trouville. This bustling seaside spot drew artists and Parisians seeking respite from city life, and Buhot, a master printmaker, vividly evokes its turbulent energy. His work reflects the era's fascination with fleeting natural effects, echoing the Impressionist spirit amid France's post-Commune recovery. Printed in black etching and aquatint on wove paper (plate 16 × 24.1 cm), Buhot masterfully blends etching's crisp lines for dynamic waves and figures with aquatint's velvety tones for misty skies and churning seas. This hybrid technique, innovative in the 1870s etching revival, allowed painterly depth on paper, rivaling paintings in atmosphere. Buhot's prints often pushed technical boundaries, making this piece a gem of 19th-century graphic art. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Helena Gunnarsson Buhot Collection, it showcases the artist's legacy in documenting everyday drama. Visitors, let this squall sweep you into Buhot's stormy world!
About the Artist
Félix-Hilaire Buhot · 1847–1898
Félix-Hilaire Buhot was born on July 9, 1847, in Valognes, a small town in Normandy, France, into a modest family—his father a wine merchant and his mother a seller of women's clothes. Orphaned by age seven after losing both parents and his maternal grandmother, he was raised by relatives, including a godfather, and received an early introduction to drawing from his adopted mother's nephew. In 186...