L'œuvre en bref

This work marks an experimental phase for Raoul Dufy, strongly influenced by the analytical cubism of Georges Braque, whom he had met a few years earlier. The village of L'Estaque, near Marseille, is a place frequently depicted by modern painters, particularly Cézanne, and here becomes the setting for an investigation into landscape structure.

The scene depicts a steep undergrowth, with sloping trunks and steep slopes. The painting is based on a reduced palette of deep greens and ochres, applied in flat, modeled brushstrokes, with no black contours. Shapes are fragmented and geometrized, treated in successive planes, with no classical perspective. Trees are stylized, almost abstract, reduced to their essential volumes. Despite the absence of figurative detail, the whole retains a strong visual coherence, emphasizing spatial organization and the sensation of relief. The main theme here is the construction of a landscape through form and color.

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