The Beach at Sainte-Adresse 1906

Raoul Dufy painted The Beach at Sainte-Adresse with oil on canvas. Looking at those fluid brushstrokes, and that summery, almost childlike color palette, I can imagine Dufy standing there, right on that beach. It’s like he’s translating what he sees into these bright, playful marks. Did he start with thin washes, building up layers of color and form, or was it immediate, a burst of energy? I feel like he's trying to figure out how to turn the feeling of the wind, the light and the color into paint. That vertical stroke that becomes a flagpole, for example, and the people all in a row. It’s not just about recording what's there, it’s like he’s re-imagining it. I wonder if he was thinking about Impressionists like Monet who also painted the French coast, but Dufy’s got this quirky, almost Fauvist color thing going on, all his own. We're all in the same conversation, right? Trying to see, trying to say something with paint.