General Introduction

The coastline of Seine-Maritime, in Normandy, is bordered by a long ribbon of white chalk cliffs at the foot of which the sea takes on milky green hues, earning it the name Côte d'Albâtre, or the Alabaster Coast. The village of Étretat lies in a narrow valley carved out of the cliffs which leads down to a pebble beach. Under the effects of erosion, the rock here has taken on spectacular shapes, creating three arches that open successively into the sea as well as a needle. This exceptional landscape has become part of our collective imagination thanks to the work of various artists and it attracts an ever-growing number of tourists every year.
Painters and writers played a major role in the discovery and subsequent renown of Étretat. Over the course of the 19th century, Étretat developed into a veritable ‘artists’ village', on the same level as Barbizon in the Forest of Fontainebleau, or Pont-Aven in Brittany. Through the many representations of this unique site in this exhibition, we can see the changes in the perception of the landscape and its representation over the course of a century, from Romanticism to Modernism.
Drawing on two major paintings executed in Étretat by Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet and present in the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, this exhibition is the first to retrace this evolution. At a time when the site of Étretat is under threat from over-use by tourists and the erosion of the cliffs hastened by the effects of climate change, the exhibition invites us, through 150 works and documents, to question our perspective on the landscape and the myth-making process.

This exhibition is a collaboration between the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (Germany), where it will be on view from 19 March to 5 July 2026.

Using photogrammetry, Iconem has produced a complete digitisation of the Étretat cliffs to ensure the preservation of this threatened natural heritage. The result is a three-dimensional digital replica, which we invite you to discover through a unique immersive experience at the beginning of this exhibition.

Label

Ferdinand Lunel
La Flèche, Sarthe (France), 1857 – Toulouse, Haute-Garonne (France), 1949
Western Railways, St-Lazare Station. Étretat, 4 Hours from Paris, Tennis Club
Ca. 1900
Poster, color lithograph
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des Estampes et de la Photographie

1. Discovering Étretat

For a number of years, Étretat remained unknown to artists. This modest fishing village was difficult to get to, due to the lack of a serviced road, and the Normandy coastline generally did not attract painters until the 19th century. The sea aroused more fear than admiration, until the combined influence of the taste for science introduced by the Enlightenment* and the fascination for the notion of the sublime** of nascent Romanticism prompted a major change.
One of the earliest depictions of Étretat, by Alexandre Jean Noël at the end of the 18th century, is undoubtedly linked to an advertising effort. However, it was not until the 1820s that the first artists gradually settled here. The seascape painter Eugène Isabey is reputed to have been a pioneer in this movement. He produced a series of watercolours that reflected his fascination with the area which he used to compose landscapes, featuring figures, that borrowed certain characteristic features from the site. He was soon followed by many other artists, both French and foreign, including the German artist Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. Eugène Delacroix was a neighbour during a stay with his cousins. Later, Camille Corot was invited by one of his collectors. All these artists, classical and romantic alike, worked side by side, marking the beginning of the gradual transformation of Étretat into a veritable open-air painting studio, a practice that had by then become commonplace.

*Enlightenment: A philosophical, literary and intellectual school of thought that dominated the world of ideas in 18th-century Europe.
**Sublime: Philosophical concept, theorised in 1757 by the Englishman Edmund Burke, which refers to the feeling of fascination experienced when faced with the power of the natural elements.

Labels

Alexandre Jean Noël
Brie-Comte-Robert, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1752 – Paris (France), 1834
Étretat, General View Towards the Oyster Beds
Ca. 1786
Graphite pencil and watercolour on paper
Paris, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt
This watercolour is the oldest known representation of Étretat. The artist, a seascape painter, was probably commissioned by the entrepreneur Joseph Fabre, self-proclaimed Baron de Belvert, who had built oyster beds at the foot of the Aval cliff. His aim was to promote his oysters, which were said to have been served at Queen Marie-Antoinette's table in Versailles. Executed on site, perhaps with the aid of a camera obscura*, this topographical view served as a basis for Noël's large gouache with figures as well as for an engraving. Despite these efforts, the attempt to develop oyster farming in Étretat failed.
* An optical device that produces a clear image of an object that can then be traced.

Horace Vernet
Paris (France), 1789 - 1863
Étretat, the Beach and the Porte d’Aval, page from a sketchbook
Ca. 1819
Graphite pencil on paper
Private collection

Robert Brandard
Birmingham (England), 1805 – London (England), 1862
After Clarkson Stanfield
Sunderland  (England), 1793 – Hampstead (England), 1867
Rocks of Étretat
1834
Steel engraving, published in Travelling Sketches on the Sea-Coasts of France by Leitch Ritchie
Frankfurt, Städel Museum

Thales Fielding
London (England), 1793 - 1837
After Alexandre Jean Noël
Brie-Comte-Robert, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1752 – Paris (France), 1834
Étretat, View Taken from the “Trou à l'homme” Cave
1823-1825
Aquatint printed in gray wash, published in Excursion along the Coasts and in the Harbours of Normandy by Noël Jacques Lefebvre-Duruflé
Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Beach at Low Tide
1833
Oil on canvas
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Peintures
This large-format landscape was exhibited by Eugène Isabey at the Paris Salon of 1833, where it was quickly acquired by the French state. Strictly speaking, it is not a true view of Étretat, but was largely inspired by the artist's stays on the Côte d'Albâtre. The modest village of thatched cottages overlooking the pebble shore where fishing boats are beached bears some resemblance to the appearance of Étretat at that time. The chalk cliffs stand out in the background. The artist used the watercolour and oil studies he had made on site to create a picturesque scene, in the classic manner of landscape painting at that time.

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
View of Étretat
Ca. 1840-1845
Black chalk and watercolour on paper
New York, The Morgan Library & Museum
Purchased with funds from the Lois and Walter C. Walker Fund, 1991

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Étretat, the Porte d’Amont
1851
Graphite pencil, watercolour, and gouache on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Étretat, the Trou du Chaudron
Ca. 1851
Graphite pencil, watercolour, and gouache on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
The Cliffs of Étretat Viewed from the Beach
Ca. 1830-1850
Graphite pencil, watercolour, and gouache on beige paper
Private collection, Courtesy Paul Prouté Gallery

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France),1886
Étretat, the Porte d’Amont
Ca. 1830-1850
Graphite pencil, brush, black ink, watercolour, and gouache on beige paper
Paris, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Étretat, the Beach and the Porte d’Amont
Ca. 1840-1855?
Watercolour and gouache on paper
Private collection

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Étretat, the Ferme du Mont
Ca. 1851
Graphite pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques

Eugène Isabey
Paris (France), 1803 – Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne (France), 1886
Étretat, the Ferme du Mont Portal
Ca. 1851
Graphite pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques
The ferme du Mont is a traditional clos-masure in the Pays de Caux region: a farm surrounded by a hedge, with several buildings, a pond and an orchard. Located on the Amont Cliff, it soon became a favourite haunt of artists, whom the owner welcomed, agreeing to let them store their equipment so they did not have to transport it every day from the village. As a result, it earned the nickname of ‘the artists’ farm', and was represented by artists on numerous occasions. During the winter of 1868-1869, Claude Monet used the fence as the setting for his famous snow landscape The Magpie (Paris, Musée d'Orsay).

Paul Huet
Paris (France), 1803 – 1869
Boats in Étretat, Beached on the Shore
Ca. 1829
Graphite pencil and watercolour on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques
Gift of Maurice Perret-Carnot and Claire Paul-Huet, 1966

Eugène Delacroix
Charenton-Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne (France), 1798 – Paris (France), 1863
Étretat, the Porte d’Aval
Ca. 1840 or 1846
Black chalk and gouache on blue paper
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
On loan from the Van Beuningen Museum Foundation (formerly The Koenigs Collection)
Eugène Delacroix visited Normandy on several occasions, staying in Valmont, a village near Fécamp, where his cousins owned an old and partially ruined abbey. He also visited Étretat, but the chronology of his trip remains imprecise due to a lack of sources. He was fascinated by the landscape of the cliffs, which he depicted in several studies, no doubt executed on site, with a very personal aim, which explains their great freedom. He particularly admired the geology and the play of light and colour on the chalk, which was the main focus of his attention.

Eugène Delacroix
Charenton-Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne (France), 1798 – Paris (France), 1863
View of the Cliffs and Coastline near Fécamp
1829
Watercolour on paper
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Arts graphiques
Gift of Claude Roger-Marx, 1974

Victor Hugo
Besançon, Doubs (France), 1802 – Paris (France), 1885
Étretat Cliff
[the Porte d’Amont]
Travel notebook from July 25 to August 15, 1835
Graphite pencil on paper
Maisons Victor Hugo, Paris-Guernesey
Gift of Paule Langlois-Berthelot, 1973

Victor Hugo
Besançon, Doubs (France), 1802 – Paris (France), 1885
Étretat, South Cliff
[the Porte d’Aval and the Manneporte]
Travel notebook from 25 July to 15 August, 1835
Graphite pencil on paper
Maisons Victor Hugo, Paris-Guernesey
Gift of Paule Langlois-Berthelot, 1973
In the summer of 1835, Victor Hugo travelled to Normandy with his mistress, the actress Juliette Drouet. On 9 August, he arrived in Étretat and became fascinated by the imposing landscape of the cliffs. In a letter to his wife Adèle, he expressed his admiration and compared them to monumental ruins, evoking the engravings of the Italian artist Piranesi, which he considered inferior to this spectacular sight. He took a notebook and pencil to draw the cliffs, standing here at the foot of the Porte d'Aval, in the axis of which one can see the Manneporte. He did not hesitate to distort the cliffs in order to give them a monstrous and almost fantastic dimension.

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Cliff at Étretat
1836
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
The German landscape painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer travelled to the Normandy coast in August 1836 from Düsseldorf, where he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. He took advantage of this opportunity to produce a series of plein air oil studies in the classical tradition so typical of landscape painters at the beginning of the 19th century. These studies were intended to form a repertoire for later composing historiated scenes, such as the watercolour of a shipwreck scene shown here, and also served as a tool for his teaching. Striking for their tight framing and acute observation of nature, they captured the geology of the cliff strata, the movements of the waves and the reflections of light.

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Seascape at Étretat (with cliff on the left)
1836
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Seascape in Étretat (with cliff on the right)
1836
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Rocks in the Sea off the Normandy Coast
1836
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Waves off the Normandy Coast
1836
Oil on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
Waves with Boats in the Distance off the Normandy Coast
1836
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Long-term loan from the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Jülich (Germany), 1807 – Karlsruhe (Germany), 1863
On the Beach at Étretat
Ca. 1836
Watercolour on paper
Jülich, Museum Zitadelle Jülich, Landschaftsgalerie

Louis Meijer
Amsterdam (Netherlands), 1809 – Utrecht (Netherlands), 1866
Étretat, the Beach and the Porte d’Amont
Ca. 1845
Oil on canvas
Kassel, Hessen Kassel Heritage, Neue Galerie, Städtische Kunstsammlungen

Anonymous
Étretat, the Beach with Capstans
Ca. 1830-1840
Oil on paper mounted on panel
Paris, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt

Camille Corot
Paris (France), 1796 - 1875
A Windmill, Étretat
Ca. 1872
Oil on panel
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Peintures

Camille Corot
Paris (France), 1796 - 1875
Étretat, Hillside Cottages
1872
Oil on canvas
Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum
Acquired by the Von der Heydt-Stiftung with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 1973

Camille Corot
Paris (France), 1796 - 1875
Élisabeth Stumpf and her Daughter Madeleine
1872
Oil on canvas
Washington, The National Gallery of Art
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Camille Corot was invited to Étretat in September 1872 by one of his collectors, the industrialist François Stumpf, director of the Cristallerie de Pantin, who owned a villa there. The artist's stay gave rise to a number of works, all of which had one thing in common: they kept the sea at a distance and rejected the picturesque cliffs that were absent from the landscape. Here, the painter depicts his host's wife with their four-year-old daughter. The child has just picked some flowers, which she hands to her mother. This scene of family life is atypical in Corot's work, and evokes memories of 18th-century French painting. The sea is only hinted at, in the gap of the sunken lane.

Paul Flandrin
Lyon, Rhône (France), 1811 – Paris (France), 1902
Cliff by the Sea
Ca. 1863-1868
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Private collection
The Lyon-born artist Paul Flandrin specialised in landscape painting, travelling around France every summer in search of subjects for his studies. In 1863, he was invited by his friend, the sculptor Eugène Oudiné, who had recently built a villa in Étretat, to join him there for a few days. He enjoyed his stay and returned every year until 1868. The letters he wrote to his wife Aline are a vivid record of the atmosphere in the village at the time. They can be directly linked to the drawings and studies he made, which he then used as a basis for reworking his compositions, as he did here, in the studio.

Paul Flandrin
Lyon, Rhône (France), 1811 – Paris (France), 1902
Letters to his Wife Aline, from Étretat
1863, 1865 and 1868
Notes on his stay from September 4 to 26, 1868
Lyon, musée des Beaux-Arts
Long-term loan from the Flandrin heirs

Charles François Daubigny
Paris (France), 1817 – 1878
Étretat, the Porte d’Aval
Ca. 1858-1868
Watercolour and graphite pencil on paper
New York, The Morgan Library & Museum
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Robinson, Jr., 2015