Le port de Saint-Tropez 

Henri Lebasque painted "Le port de Saint-Tropez" with visible, loose brushstrokes that give the scene a dynamic sense of movement. The composition is structured by a contrast between the foreground with darker, earth-toned boats and figures, and the bright, airy background featuring the sea, a lighthouse, and distant hills. Lebasque's approach is fascinating for how it simplifies forms into almost abstract shapes, suggesting a concern with the formal elements of painting over strict representation. The cool blues and greens in the water and sky create a serene yet somewhat detached atmosphere. The painting flattens the pictorial space, reducing depth, which aligns it with early modernist explorations of perspective and representation. This visual strategy challenges traditional landscape painting by emphasizing surface and the materiality of paint. It invites a focus on the painting as an object rather than just a window onto a scene.