By the Eure River in Summer 1902

Gustave Loiseau captured this summery scene by the Eure River with the quick dabs of a loaded brush. Can you imagine him there, swatting mosquitos and squinting in the sun? Look how he makes the foliage dense with greens, each stroke a tiny building block of depth. There’s something so optimistic about all that green, isn’t there? Like a promise of growth and renewal. The water lilies sit placidly on the surface, reflecting the light in an interplay of blues and greens. I think Loiseau and his peers, like Monet and Pissarro, were all pushing to see how much information they could give us with the fewest marks possible. They were trying to trap light and air on the canvas, to give us not just a picture of a place, but a sensation. It's like a shorthand for seeing. And it's an ongoing conversation among painters, this back and forth, this constant re-evaluation of how we see the world.