Landscape in Southern France (Cagnes).

Landscape in Southern France (Cagnes) of 1911 is one of the series of broadly conceived Provençal landscape canvases Renoir produced from his Les Collettes estate, documenting the warm olive-grove terrain, the Mediterranean vegetation, and the specific quality of southern French light that had drawn him to settle permanently at Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1907. By 1911 he had been painting the Cagnes landscape for four years and had developed a fluent late landscape vocabulary for the specific character of the site: the silvery-green of the ancient olive trees, the warm ochres of the hillside soil, the blue haze of the Estérel mountains in the distance. This vocabulary was recognizably his own — warmer, more atmospheric than Cézanne's rigorous Provençal landscape analysis, more freely handled than Sisley's systematic landscape production — and constituted a distinct late contribution to the French landscape tradition. The canvas belongs to a group of 1911 landscape works that are among his most expansive and freely painted, suggesting a sustained physical and creative vigor during that particular year despite his advancing arthritis.

Working on paper rather than canvas, Renoir uses fluid, open strokes with no attempt at detailed finish. Warm ochres, greens, and pale blues define the Mediterranean landscape. The touch is extremely free, suggesting rather than describing the terrain through colour temperature and tonal contrast.