Plage des Vaches Noires, Villers

Maxime Lalanne's etching captures the dramatic Norman coastline at Villers-sur-Mer, where chalk cliffs rise sharply above the tidal flats. The composition demonstrates the precision of mid-nineteenth-century landscape printmaking: careful cross-hatching renders texture and shadow across rock formations, while parallel lines suggest atmospheric depth. Scattered figures and boats anchor the vast geological drama in human scale. Lalanne's technique typifies the etching revival of his era, when artists valued the medium's capacity for fine detail and tonal subtlety alongside spontaneous line work.