The Port of Sauzon 1905

Maxime Maufra built up this view of The Port of Sauzon with visible brushstrokes and dabs of color. I can imagine him outside with his easel, trying to capture the way the light hits the buildings and the water. It's like he’s wrestling with the scene, pushing and pulling the paint to make sense of it. Look at the way the boats are clustered together, their masts creating a kind of rhythmic pattern. Maufra’s not trying to give us a perfectly clear picture, but more of an impression of the port and its busy atmosphere. I bet he looked at Monet and Pissarro a lot, but he’s doing his own thing here. The colors are muted, like he’s trying to catch a cloudy day. It’s a really nice painting, not too fussy, but full of feeling. You get the sense that he wasn’t just painting what he saw, but how it felt to be there. Artists, they’re always having a conversation across time, adding their own voice to the mix.