# La Tour de Solidor at St. Severin, Normandy

- By: Carroll Beckwith (born Hannibal, MO 1852-died New York City 1917)
- Date: ca. 1877
- Medium: oil on fabric: canvas mounted on paperboard
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 12 1/8 x 9 7/8 in. (30.8 x 25.1 cm.)
- Culture: Normandy (France)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=1725)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/cdf042dffb845e058bfb91d3ba22c411.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

James Carroll Beckwith made many trips to Europe throughout his life and spent at least one summer in Normandy. The coastal light inspired a series of moody paintings of dramatic ruins set against restless skies. This piece shows a fourteenth-century fortress in the city of Saint-Malo. Beckwith placed the massive structure at the top of the canvas against a dark, stormy sky to emphasize its height and grandeur.