Landscape of Falaise 1910

Raoul Dufy made this landscape painting of Falaise with oil on canvas, its dimensions are 46 by 38 cm. I can only imagine Dufy standing en plein air, squinting at the scene. He's simplified the landscape and architecture to their essential forms and shapes. There's a real sense of joy in this painting; the colours are playful and light. Take a look at how the greens vibrate against the reds, and the ochre. The brushwork is loose and lively. See how Dufy renders the trees in the foreground with just a few strokes. The paint seems thinly applied to the canvas, allowing for a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. It's all about the gesture and the feeling of being present in the landscape. Dufy wasn’t alone in his painting journey. All artists respond to one another across time, which is just a fancy way of saying that we all get our ideas from somewhere. But it's also fair to say that we make them our own!