Afternoon in the Woods 1919

Maurice Denis made "Afternoon in the Woods," in paint, at an unknown date. It's got this dreamy, slightly out-of-focus vibe, like a memory half-recalled, built from small dabs of color. It's the kind of painting where you can feel the artist figuring things out as they go along, which is often the most interesting part. There's something about the materiality of this piece that draws me in. The paint is thin, almost translucent in places, which gives the whole scene an airy quality. Look at the way he renders the water in the background with these tiny, rhythmic strokes, it's like a visual echo of the gentle lapping of waves. Then, closer to the foreground there is a very odd fleshy mark painted on the trunk of the tree. That mark looks like a mistake, like a bit of underpainting revealed, it's these moments that makes painting so compelling. Denis reminds me a little of Vuillard, they both share a similar sensibility to domestic life, and both make paintings that are at once calming and quietly unsettling. It’s a conversation between artists, spanning time, where answers are optional and the questions are always open.