L'œuvre en bref

During his stays in Italy, Nicolas de Staël became interested in the landscapes of the south, which he approached through an extreme simplification of forms. Agrigento offered him a motif based on the superimposition of hills and the clarity of the Mediterranean soil. He did not seek to represent a specific site, but rather to organise the surface of the painting using coloured planes, working on the relationship between the earth, the horizon and the sky.

The composition is constructed in undulating horizontal bands. The upper part is occupied by a dense, uniform red. Below, yellow, ochre, white and purple masses interlock to form a succession of reliefs. The shapes are broad, cut out by sharp edges and visible overlaps. The paint is applied in thick layers, sometimes scraped away, revealing areas of transition between colours. The whole is based on a balance between luminous flat areas and marked contrasts.

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