Seventh Bucolic: Pastoral 1955

Jacques Villon made this bucolic scene with some kind of pastel or crayon. Look at the way the marks dance and weave, creating these angular, almost geometric forms. It's like he's not just depicting goats and sheep, but also breaking them down into their essential shapes, turning them into facets of light and color. I can almost see Villon, standing there with his materials, trying to capture the essence of these animals with a few strokes. I wonder what he was thinking about as he drew them, maybe about how form and color can create the illusion of depth and movement on a flat surface. The way he uses color is interesting too; those muted yellows, greens, and pinks give the scene a hazy, dreamlike quality. There is something comforting about the way all the shapes come together, shifting, as though constantly emerging. It reminds us that painting is an act of exploration and that artists build on each other’s discoveries, pushing the boundaries of what painting can do.