Animals Crossing a Flooded River with a Distant Waterfall 1924

André Bauchant painted this landscape with animals sometime around 1929. It’s got this muted palette, mostly greens and grays, a gentle wash of color that creates a sense of calm. The waterfall is a soft, blurry white, like a dream fading into the distance. I imagine Bauchant carefully layering the paint, building up the textures of the trees and the water, almost like he’s constructing a miniature world. Look at the way the animals are placed, so deliberately, like actors on a stage. He may have been thinking about the delicate balance of nature, or maybe he was just trying to capture a fleeting moment of beauty he witnessed. There's a naivety to the way he’s painted the animals. He might not have had formal training, but he had an eye for composition and a real feel for the landscape. In a way, it reminds me of early Rousseau, that directness and simplicity. And like all painters, he’s in conversation with them, wrestling with the same ideas.