This landscape painting was inspired by Derain’s visit to L’Estaque, a town in the south of France. The monumental canvas presents an idyllic country scene with swaying trees and people going about their daily activities. The painting’s title comes from the road that curves through the landscape from the lower right.
The most striking features of this painting and of Derain’s style are the bright, vivid colors and the emphasis on curving lines and forms. Rather than using the colors that trees, roads, and people have in real life, Derain chose hot pinks, yellows, oranges, and reds, which create a sense of heightened emotion. The intense energy of the colors contrasts with the serene view of nature.
In the foreground, large, flame-colored trees with writhing trunks reach to the top of the composition. The bending lines of the trees echo the arc of the turning road. Derain thus unified his composition with both the bold colors and the rhythmic lines that animate the entire painting.
Although Derain’s parents wanted him to become an army officer or an engineer, he was determined to be a painter. In Paris, where he began his art studies, he met Henri Matisse and, following Matisse’s example, began to use brighter colors. In 1905, after four years of military service, Derain joined Matisse in the south of France at Collioure. There they painted a series of brilliantly colored, sun-drenched Mediterranean landscapes. In Paris later that year, Derain exhibited these canvases with works by Matisse and other artists who painted in a similar style. The bright color used so freely led one critic to call the group “Les Fauves,” or “wild beasts”. The term Fauve is still applied to these artists and to the style they developed.
