According to tradition the One Hundred Pines (the cluster of large trees at the center of the painting), was used as a landmark for ships entering Charleston Harbor. The theme of landscape, somewhat unusual for Charleston in the early nineteenth century, is reverently portrayed and Trouche has captured some of the haziness common to the Lowcountry. Trouche's paintings have much in common with contemporary French landscapes of the Barbizon school. Both exhibit earth tonalities, insignificance of human figures, light backgrounds and dark foregrounds, and painterly application of paint. Very little is known about Trouche. However, according to family tradition he was born in Charleston, and in 1829 he is listed in the Charleston City Directory as an accountant. A posthumous appraisal of his paintings appeared in the October 27, 1849, issue of the Charleston Mercury: "The swamp and the forest scene of the Low Country had infused itself into his very nature. He dreamed it and painted it accordingly. He has left too many pictures unpainted; called away too soon, himself young and young in all the impulse of his art."