Route à la Cadière 1957

André Lhote painted this landscape, Route à la Cadière, with oil on canvas, I’m guessing in the first half of the 20th century. Lhote approaches the landscape as a mosaic of colour, each brushstroke like a tile in a larger design, playing with structure and movement. You can really see the materiality of the paint here; the way the brushstrokes sit on the surface, thick and kind of juicy, not trying to hide the process but really foregrounding it. The colours are bold, but not blended. It's like he’s scooped up these pure, vibrant colours and plopped them down next to each other, letting them vibrate and create this almost Fauvist energy. Look at that purple road on the left, how it winds through the yellow field, held by a jolt of red; it’s so deliberate and playful. Lhote seems to be in conversation with both the Cubists and Fauves, and it’s interesting to see how he forges his own path.