Cagnes Landscape 1910

This is a landscape by Renoir, painted at Cagnes in the south of France, and it looks like it was made alla prima, meaning all in one go. What strikes me most is the breezy fluidity, the way the colors blend as if everything’s still wet. You can see it in the sky, with the blues and whites, and in the way the tree in the centre almost dissolves into the atmosphere. The paint’s not trying to hide itself here; it’s right there on the surface. Look at that little squiggle of a signature, bottom right. The whole thing feels dashed off, a fleeting impression caught in a moment. There's a similar feeling in some of Corot's landscapes. Maybe this is about reminding us that a painting can be a record of an experience, a way of seeing and feeling, as much as it is about depicting something. It’s like Renoir’s saying, "Here, look at what I saw, how I felt, in this place, at this time."