Jean Francis Auburtin was a 19th Century Symbolist painter, an heir of Impressionism, influenced by Japonisme, and sometimes referred to as “the Symbolist of the Sea”. Born December 2, 1866, Auburtin was apprenticed early to the painter Louis-Theodore Devilly.  He then enrolled at the Alsatian School of Paris in 1875 where he met his future wife Marthe Deloy, a sister of one of his classmates. After further education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Auburtin found himself attracted to painting the cliffs and the ever-changing effects of light on the sea and as a result lived in various locations that offered these views. Auburtin mainly painted in gouache and watercolor, depicting the Normandy coastline, the sea, and later in life figures of dancers. At the end of the nineteenth century, Auburtin became interested in Japanese art and began a small collection of prints, some painted by the famous Japanese painter Hokusaï, which influenced his own work in no small measure. Jean Francis Auburtin rose to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor. From 1904 onwards he lived in Varengeville; when he died in 1930 he was buried in the cliff-top cemetery of Varengeville-sur-Mer, which is also the final resting place of Georges Braque.