Etretat 1902

Gustave Loiseau made this landscape, Etretat, with oil on canvas. You can almost feel the chill in the air, can’t you? The rock face looms, and you get the sense that Loiseau built it up slowly, stone by stone. The way he’s applied the paint makes me wonder about the weather when he made it. Was it a quick sketch in the sun or a dogged approach over days? I bet he was battling the elements to capture the scene! I can see Loiseau’s standing on the beach, squinting. Then the North Atlantic sea air whipped around him as he painted the waves with short strokes of blues, greens, and whites. You can really feel the weight of the mountain compared to the fragile boats on the water! Painters are always chatting to each other, across time, across movements. With this piece, Loiseau’s in conversation with the greats who came before him, interpreting and adding his own story to the canon. Painting is like that, it shifts and emerges, and it’s never really fixed.