Estaque 1905

André Derain painted Estaque with oil on canvas, and what hits you first is the daring colour. The bold strokes that build up the scene, they’re not trying to trick your eye into seeing reality, more like building their own world from scratch. Look how Derain uses these thick, juicy reds for the tree trunks, pulling them right up against the blues and greens. It’s like he’s pushing the paint around, seeing what it can do, how far it can go before it all falls apart. I love the way he applies the paint, raw and unblended. In the foreground, there’s a figure almost lost in the brushstrokes, a quick daub of colour suggesting movement. Derain’s got a bit of Van Gogh's energy here, that same willingness to throw caution to the wind and just let the paint speak. But it’s also got its own thing going on, it’s a bold conversation about what painting can be, a game where the rules are made to be broken.