«©MuséeMarmottanMonet,

Académiedesbeaux-arts,Paris»

In 1892 Armand Guillaumin decided to leave Paris. He settled in the village of Fresselines and then in Crozant, in the department of Creuse. There he pursued a solitary career, working tirelessly on a handful of favourite sites where he was particularly compelled by the contrast between the mineral and the vegetable elements along the River Sédelle, just below the village of Crozant. In these landscapes he depicts unchanging tall cliffs that hem in the scene, contrasting them with the constantly changing rows of trees that are reflected in multiple dashes of light and shadow on the water and the grass. Guillamin began using pure colours in 1885 and this practice became increasingly pronounced during his voluntary exile. The chromatic intensity of the work shown here prompted some critics to write—in reference to the 1905 Salon d’Automne, where the works of Matisse, Derain and Marquet marked the birth of Fauvism—that Guillaumin was the most “Fauve” of theImpressionists.