Storm in Quiberon

Storm in Quiberon from 1904 depicts the dramatic weather that characterizes the Quiberon peninsula — a narrow finger of land projecting into the Bay of Biscay on Brittany's southern coast. Quiberon's exposure to Atlantic storms made it a compelling subject for marine painters seeking the kind of elemental confrontation between sea and land that Courbet had elevated as a serious artistic subject in the 1860s. Maufra was drawn repeatedly to stormy coastal subjects, and this Quiberon storm belongs to a series of storm paintings that demonstrate his mastery of turbulent marine conditions. The Museum of Fine Arts of Reims holds this significant marine subject.

Maufra applies paint with exceptional energy in this storm subject, with vigorous, directional strokes capturing the violence of wind and waves. His palette darkens relative to his calm-weather coastal paintings — heavy greys and blue-blacks in the storm clouds, white in the breaking waves, the cliffs rendered in deep ochre-browns. The handling communicates meteorological drama through painterly means.