Forest at Martigues 1909

Andre Derain captured this ‘Forest at Martigues’ with oil on canvas. Notice the trees dominating the foreground, their dark, sinuous forms twist and writhe, almost as if caught in a silent struggle. The forest, historically, has been a place of both refuge and danger, a space where the subconscious comes to life through myths and fairy tales. These trees, with their anthropomorphic qualities, remind me of the wood of suicides in Dante's Inferno, where tormented souls are transformed into gnarled, suffering trees. The use of the forest as a powerful metaphor transcends time. In ancient Germanic folklore, forests were sacred groves, inhabited by gods and spirits, places of initiation and transformation. But here, the dark palette evokes a sense of unease, a feeling of being watched, hinting at the hidden, perhaps repressed, aspects of the human psyche. The house in the background is a safe haven, a reminder of domesticity, yet it’s surrounded and encroached upon by a powerful and ancient forest. This cyclical return to the forest is powerful, reminding us of the enduring tension between civilization and the wild, the conscious and the unconscious.