Casino of Nice 1927

Raoul Dufy made this painting of the Casino of Nice with oil on canvas. It's kind of slap-dash, like the scene was knocked out in a hurry. There's something charming about that speed, the way the colour is applied and then loosely outlined in black, as if holding it all together. There's one particular detail, the spindly palm tree in the center, with its trunk rendered in these staccato marks that give it a real sense of texture. Dufy's using the paint almost like he's sketching. It's not about perfection, but about capturing a feeling, a moment. You can see echoes of Matisse in Dufy’s love of colour and pattern, but Dufy's got his own thing going on. His work makes you think about how paintings aren't just about what they depict, but how they depict it. It is about gesture, process and the joy of seeing.