Landscape with red and yellow 1908

Raoul Dufy made this 54 by 65 cm painting, "Landscape with red and yellow," with oil on canvas. Look at these brushstrokes, how they dance and skip across the surface! There’s a real energy here, right? I imagine Dufy, maybe outside, squinting at the landscape, trying to capture that fleeting light. The red and yellow, so vivid, clash a bit with the more subdued greens and grays, it's like he’s trying to hold onto summer as the grays of winter creep in. Dufy’s mark-making is so casual, so sure of itself, that the houses and trees are reduced to their barest essence. I can really relate to this, that feeling of wanting to capture the essence of the world, not just its appearance. It's like a shorthand, a quick note to oneself. Painters like Matisse were playing with similar ideas—simplifying forms, letting color do the work. It’s all one big conversation, isn’t it? Artists talking to each other across time and space, nudging each other along. Dufy is just reminding us that a painting isn't a mirror, it's a window into someone else's way of seeing, thinking, and feeling.