Theatre Appreciation Journal 1

Nadia Valentina Valdez Saravia

The piece of art that I chose is “Landscape near Chatou” by Andre Derain; it was painted in
1904, the year of a new vision for art. The artwork is part of the Fauvism movement, one of the
first movements in art that change the world and defined a new era. Derain is one of the first to
rebel against the old rules of art, against society's expectations (of art) and all the established.
Apart from that being an oleo painting, Derain uses the technique of brush strokes that are a
little aggressive for that time. He uses a lot of color for this artwork, which is strange because
usually, the colors of the other paintings of the previous century and from his time were dark.
The subject that he uses is the use of light; it could be a study of how the light works in distinct
parts of the day but shows something familiar: a sunset.
Learning more about Derain, his art skills differ from what we usually expected. We always
expect artwork that is clean and delicate, but his artwork looks different, and that is beautiful.
Does not manner that the way that he painted could be rough and clumsy, is the way that he
represents what is a sunset for him; that is his aesthetic, is shown with abrupt techniques
something that is known as delicate, shows all the colors that are in the world.
Derain is trying to say something to us with this paint, a new way to see the world, a world with
color. Is his painting one of the windows of a new century? Is this artwork a door to our
nostalgia, a memory, or even a dream? Just to see it you feel cozy, as you are in a safe place, a
place that is ordinal for the world but special for you. That was (probably) the purpose of
Derain, this town near Chatou has a special meaning for him; was this place special for him?
The real reason that I chose this artwork is for a feeling. The first time that I saw it was during
my literature class in the year 2020, the coronavirus year. Seeing it during you are insolate
passing an online class in your room, without going outside and seeing your friends, your
teachers and you cannot feel their presence is sad. But you just can see this landscape during
your online class, and you remember those little towns on the highway of the plateau in Bolivia
(my country) and you saw the vibrating colors it is like seeing a dream or a memory. When you
see those colors of the sunset you see the last light in the day, that light that is hope, the hope
that tomorrow going to be a better day, the day that you could see them again. Even today
when I am 7000 km from my house, this painting means a lot. This painting means to me a
window to a new world.