Paysage du Midi 1905

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes made this painting of a landscape in the South of France, called Paysage du Midi, in oil paint. See how the brushstrokes are laid down methodically in little dashes, a tapestry of marks slowly building up the image. Look closely at the trees on the left side of the painting, how the trunks are delineated not with browns and blacks, but striking, almost unnatural blues and reds. These colours don’t blend or fade into the surrounding greens of the foliage, they assert themselves, refusing to be realistic, embracing the artificiality of the paint, the process of artmaking. Ribemont-Dessaignes feels like a weird cousin of Bonnard, or Vuillard, artists more usually associated with domestic interiors rather than landscapes. But like them, he’s playing with our expectations of colour and form, reminding us that art is about seeing, and imagining, in new ways.