Barche sulla spiaggia 1955

Ottone Rosai painted this scene of boats on a beach, probably in Italy, using oil paint, maybe around the mid-20th century. It's pretty simple, right? Squarish white buildings with terracotta roofs, and three boats pulled up on the sand. Rosai uses this really dry brush, which gives the paint this crumbly texture. You can almost feel the grit of the beach. You know, I bet he stood there squinting in the sun, trying to capture the way the light bleached out the colors. There’s something so casual and confident about how he defines those forms with just a few strokes. The red, white, and blue boats repeat the colours of the Italian flag! And those boxy buildings... they remind me a little of De Chirico's eerie cityscapes, or even some of those early modernist landscapes by Cezanne. I'm sure Rosai was looking at other artists. That's how we learn, riffing on each other's ideas. It's a reminder that painting is a conversation across time, always evolving, never truly finished.