Landscape 1930

Andre Derain made this landscape painting with oil on canvas, and I imagine the canvas propped up on an easel, out in the sunshine. The painting seems to show a town baking under the heat of the sun. He’s used a clear, bright colour palette, with each tone distinct from the next. It's like he’s carefully piecing together the view. I get the sense he's not just representing the scene before him, but also trying to figure out what makes it tick. Look at the road in the foreground—how the brushstrokes follow its curves, almost as if Derain is mapping its every twist and turn. It reminds me of Cezanne's landscapes, how he built form through colour. It’s like Derain is in conversation with him, asking similar questions about how we perceive the world and how we translate that onto canvas.