The Factory Chimney, Meulan Landscape 1912

Roger de La Fresnaye made this landscape, with its factory chimney, using a Fauvist palette of greens, yellows, and reds. I wonder, was de La Fresnaye trying to make a Cubist landscape? It’s like he’s got the planes and angles of Cubism, but he can’t quite give up the pleasure of painting a regular scene. I sympathize! I’m often trying to do something wild and crazy in my own paintings, but then I think, "Oh, but what if I put a little recognizable image in there?" I love the way he simplified everything into these clean geometric shapes. It’s a place, but it’s also a constructed world. The textures are flat, but the planes recede into the distance to give the impression of depth. He's not afraid to be bold and a little bit awkward, and that’s what makes it so charming. Painters are always responding to one another across generations. They inspire one another’s creativity. We can see the echoes of Cézanne in de La Fresnaye, and I’m sure there are younger painters today who are taking cues from both of them.