Les Bergeries, Soleil Couchant (Pastoral Scene, Setting Sun)

Art Historical Context

**Les Bergeries, Soleilant (Pastoral Scene Setting Sun)** Nestled in the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection, Félix-Hil Buhot's etching * Bergeries, Soleil Couchant* (ca. 1826–1850) invites visitors into a tranquil 19th-century countryside. The title evokes rustic sheepfolds (*bergeries*) glowing under a fading sun, capturing the quiet poetry of rural life. Buhot, a pioneering French printmaker (184–1898), excelled etchings that blended meticulous detail with atmospheric depth, reflecting the Romantic era's fascination with nature's fleeting beauty. Etching's intaglio technique—wher...

About the Artist

Félix-Hilaire Buhot · 1847–1898

Félix-Hilaire Buhot was born on July 9, 1847, in Valognes, a small town in Normandy, France, into a modest family—his father a wine merchant and his mother a seller of women's clothes. Orphaned by age seven after losing both parents and his maternal grandmother, he was raised by relatives, including a godfather, and received an early introduction to drawing from his adopted mother's nephew. In 186...