Paysage aux environs de la ciotat

Warm golden hills tumble toward a calm blue sea in this quiet corner of the French countryside, painted by André Derain near the coastal town of La Ciotat. Derain was one of the daring artists behind Fauvism, a movement whose members earned the nickname "Fauves," or "wild beasts," because of the bold, almost startling colors they threw onto their canvases. By 1907, when he made this scene, some of that wildness had settled. The fiery reds and yellows of his earlier years gave way to gentler earth tones, the kind of muted golds and soft greens that suit the Mediterranean light so many painters traveled south to capture.

Chunky rocks anchor the left side of the picture, looking almost carved from stone, while the trees are put together from plain blocks of green. That builder's approach was no accident. Around this time, the ideas of Paul Cézanne were catching on with younger artists, nudging them to see nature as a set of solid shapes rather than pure flashes of color. This canvas captures Derain at a turning point, stepping away from raw wildness toward something firmer and more thoughtful.

Nobody would call this his showiest work, and that is really the appeal of it. Watching an artist ease off the drama and simply study the dry land and distant water in front of him has a plain honesty to it, and that quieter mood is where its charm lives.