Portrait of Lucien Gilbert 1906

André Derain captured Lucien Gilbert in oil, using thick strokes of green and yellow. When I look at this painting, I imagine Derain deep in conversation with Gilbert. He's trying to capture not just how his friend looks, but who he is. The way he uses that heavy green is so good, it’s almost sculptural. I can see him layering it, scraping it back, finding the form. It is a painting about painting, but also about friendship, an ongoing exchange between two people. You can see how Derain thinks about Cézanne here, but he's pushing it further with the colour, making it his own. That little flash of red on Gilbert's hand, the orange bowtie... that's Derain saying, "I'm here, too." It reminds me that painting is a language, and these artists are all talking to each other across time.