Boats on the Seine 

Gustave Loiseau painted ‘Boats on the Seine’ using oil paint, a medium that has been a mainstay of fine art for centuries. But look closely, and you’ll see that his technique is more aligned with craft traditions than with academic painting. Thick, textured brushstrokes build up the image, layer upon layer. The material qualities of the paint itself – its viscosity, its capacity to reflect light – are as important as the scene depicted. Loiseau was part of a generation of artists who turned away from smooth, illusionistic surfaces, and embraced the handmade quality of their medium. He was more interested in the labor and the means of production than trying to replicate the look of photography. This emphasis on process elevates the status of craft. It invites us to consider not just what is represented, but how it was made, blurring the lines between art and labor.