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Home France Wall ArtNormandy Wall Art
Normandy wall art centers on two French landmarks: the tidal abbey of Mont Saint-Michel and the chalk cliffs at Etretat, carved into arches by the English Channel. A few harbor and storm scenes round out the range. The palette ... More
Normandy wall art centers on two French landmarks: the tidal abbey of Mont Saint-Michel and the chalk cliffs at Etretat, carved into arches by the English Channel. A few harbor and storm scenes round out the range. The palette runs from abbey grey and chalk white to a deep channel blue, with warm breaks where a sunset catches the stone.
The abbey was founded in the 8th century on a rocky island just off the Normandy coast, and the causeway around it floods at high tide, which is why so many of these pictures show the abbey ringed by wet sand or open water. The Gothic spire at the top has stood since the medieval rebuilding of the church, and it is the one shape every picture in this group returns to.
Several pieces catch Mont Saint-Michel at low tide, when a shallow film of water sits on the flats and the abbey repeats upside down in it. That is a calmer composition than the causeway shots, symmetrical rather than dramatic, and it reads best centered on a wall rather than off to one side.
The cliffs on France's Alabaster Coast are soft white chalk, the same rock that forms the white cliffs of Dover across the Channel, and the sea has cut them into arches rather than the jagged spires a harder stone would leave. Claude Monet painted this stretch of coast repeatedly in the 1880s, and the pictures here follow the same light: cool grey stone against a warmer sky.
Etretat carries several named arches, and this range keeps them separate rather than treating them as one view. Aval Cliff, also called Porte d'Aval, is the smaller and more famous of the two, close to town. La Manneporte is larger and further along the beach, tall enough that fishing boats once passed beneath it. A picture of one is not a picture of the other, even though both are chalk arches on the same stretch of coast.
A few pieces catch the cliffs under breaking storm light, with sun cutting through cloud onto wet chalk. That is a moodier, higher contrast picture than the calm blue sky versions, and it suits a room where you want one dramatic statement rather than a quiet backdrop.
Measure the furniture below the wall and aim for about two thirds of its width. The causeway views of Mont Saint-Michel carry a lot of open sand and sky, so they lose their sense of distance if hung small. A closer cliff arch photograph holds up at a smaller size because the subject fills more of the frame already.
La Manneporte is available as a vertical canvas as well as the standard shape, and the tall crop suits a narrow wall or the space beside a doorway, since the arch runs taller than it is wide. Mont Saint-Michel is a wider, flatter subject and works better as a horizontal or panoramic canvas that keeps the tidal flats in view on either side of the island.
For the wider country see France wall art, for the landform on its own see cliff wall art, and for coastal scenes from other regions see coastal wall art.
Every piece is printed to order on museum quality canvas with archival inks that resist fading, stretched over a solid wooden inner frame and shipped ready to hang, with free shipping.
Mont Saint-Michel, the tidal abbey on the Normandy coast, and the chalk cliffs and natural arches at Etretat, including Aval Cliff and La Manneporte. A handful of harbor and storm-light coastal scenes complete the range.
The abbey sits on a tidal island, so the water around it rises and falls through the day. Some pictures show it ringed by wet sand at low tide, others show a full reflection pool, and a few show open water at high tide. Same building, different hour.
No. Aval Cliff is the smaller, closer arch near the town of Etretat. La Manneporte is larger and sits further along the beach. They are two separate rock formations on the same stretch of chalk coast.
Chalk white and stone grey from the cliffs and the abbey, with channel blue in the water and sky. The sunset and storm-light pieces add gold and amber where the light breaks through.
A cool room, since the range runs grey, white and channel blue rather than warm tones. Pale walls, linen and driftwood grey furniture make the best background. In a room built on warm wood tones, the sunset reflection picture is the easiest fit, since it carries gold in the sky that the rest of the range does not.
