Bacchus dance 1906

Andre Derain made this small watercolour painting of a Bacchus dance sometime in the early 20th century. What I find striking here is the approach to colour – blues, greens and yellows merging together, all underpinned by the whiteness of the paper. It’s very free, very light. Look at how the dancer is rendered, the red standing out against the cool blues of the background. See how the whiteness of the paper bleeds through? This isn’t about blocking out form or space with colour, rather, about letting the colours and shapes emerge from the surface. The looseness of the gestures suggests a certain energetic impulse; a way of thinking through making. There's something so lively about the way Derain has approached the paint, its as if we are able to observe the joyful exuberance of the dance. He reminds me a little of Raoul Dufy, another French painter interested in capturing light and movement through vivid colour. Ultimately, there’s no definitive meaning here, just the pleasure of looking.