Artwork Details
- Title
- La Tour de Solidor at St. Severin, Normandy
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1877
- Location
- Dimensions
- 12 1⁄8 x 9 7⁄8 in. (30.8 x 25.1 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Transfer from Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution
- Mediums Description
- oil on fabric: canvas mounted on paperboard
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Figure group
- Architecture — boat
- Landscape — France — Normandy
- Landscape — France — Saint Severin
- Architecture Exterior — castle — Tour de Solidor
- Object Number
- 1974.69.7
Artwork Description
James Carroll Beckwith made many trips to Europe throughout his life and spent at least one summer in Normandy. The coastal light inspired a series of moody paintings of dramatic ruins set against restless skies. This piece shows a fourteenth-century fortress in the city of Saint-Malo. Beckwith placed the massive structure at the top of the canvas against a dark, stormy sky to emphasize its height and grandeur.