The Turning Road, L'Estaque

André Derain painted this work at L'Estaque in southern France in July 1906. It is regarded as a major work of Fauvism, a short-lived French movement in which artists used intense color and energetic marks instead of aiming for naturalistic description. Derain and Henri Matisse had developed this bold new approach together in Collioure during the summer of 1905. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston describes the painting as a milestone in Fauvism because it treats color and the painted surface as central parts of a picture's meaning. L'Estaque had earlier been painted by Paul Cézanne, whose work was important to Derain's development. The picture is Derain's largest Fauvist composition and is considered a key work of the movement.