Temps d'orage, Les Andelys, Eure

Temps d'orage, Les Andelys, Eure by Maxime Maufra from 1902 documents a stormy atmospheric condition over Les Andelys, the Norman town on the Seine celebrated for the ruins of Richard the Lionheart's Château Gaillard. Maufra was drawn to dramatic weather effects — storms, rainbows, mist — as opportunities to test his Post-Impressionist color against extreme atmospheric conditions. Les Andelys had been a subject for Impressionist painters including Signac, and Maufra's visit to this Norman Seine valley town placed him in dialogue with that tradition. A storm building over the river and hills provided him with a charged subject: the ancient Norman landscape under threatening sky.

Maufra renders the pre-storm atmosphere with a palette that deepens toward green-gray and purple in the sky, contrasting against the lighter value of the Seine reflecting the remaining light. His divided strokes are employed with particular energy in the cloud formations above.