Still life on the red table 1904

André Derain made "Still Life on the Red Table" with oil paint, and you can feel how he moved the paint around, not really caring if it covered everything perfectly. I can imagine him just slathering on those strokes of red, brown, white, and blue, the brush dancing around the canvas, trying to find the right balance. There's a thick, almost chunky feel to the paint in some spots, especially where he built up the highlights on the fruit, but elsewhere it’s much thinner and scrubbed in. I like how he didn’t try to make it look “real,” instead he went for what it felt like to see that scene. That swooping brushstroke in the middle—it's like a curve of energy that pulls the whole painting together. You see echoes of other painters like Matisse here, but Derain's definitely doing his own thing. Artists are always riffing off each other, aren't they? It's like one big conversation across time, where everyone's adding their own little bit to the story.