Charred Cross Bridge – Andre Derain 1906 Analysis by Rachelle DiaB

Derain, Andre Charing Cross Bridge, 32x40 inches1906, Oil Painting on Canvas

Derain, a French painter, was asked to paint London as it was, fresh out of the industrial revolution, and in his interpretation, he created the Charing Cross Bridge. A fauvist painting, Derain had managed to paint London a view that differed previous artists who gave it a try. Part of his painting is a cityscape (the background) and at the forefront, what appears to be a landscape of a port in the countryside. The painting is a still life painting, the texture of which is said to be rough, conveying the roughness of the meaning of the painting.

The Bridge that lies in the center of the painting forms the subject and symbol of this painting. It separates the city from the port. The bridge symbolizes the separation of these two factors, essentially the dirty industry city and the clean landscape countryside – however, Derain encourages thinking when we see that although he tries to separate the two, the countryside can be see to start becoming contaminated.

The work of art is made out of oil painting on canvas and the colors used are: red, yellow, blue and green. Derain uses the different colors to symbolize different things, the blue – the shaded blue used for the cross bridge allows the bridge to stand out against its red – warm –background to express the coldness being brought forth by the rise of the industry and bringing the middle ground to the middle – to mean unpolluted and clean, whereas red to mean polluted, unhealthy and unclean. Furthermore, the smoke coming out of the industries in the background are yellow, and so is the end of the shore in the landscape at the foreground. This suggests the meaning that although part of the river is clean (blue) it’s being contaminated by the smoke (shown by the dots of yellow) and the landscape grounds (shown in red). Derain used the red as the color of the sky to portray how polluted it already is, and red being a warm color, it protrudes and emphasizes the meaning of the painting. Industry has brought on pollution, and it’s so unhealthy that now it’s in the air we breathe.

In addition, Derain wanted to express how the development of the industry was tearing down the environment by polluting it and so draws the cross bridge in a manner that is leading away from its audience – just like how clean environments are decreasing in possibility with the uprising of the industry. Derain uses diagonal line to refers to the destruction, chaos and confusion that Derain believes is that state that industries will reduce London too.

To aid in creating the 3 dimensional appearance of this painting, Derain uses lack of detail and solid shapes to represent the industries in the background, he could have also been using a lack of shape and detail to convey that the industry is not important, rather its ruining the environment. Derain adds value to the painting by shading, for example underneath the bridge using stippling and soft shading. Enabling the painting to be brought into the 3rd dimension. And gives form to shape by giving the stands of the bridges and the building to the left of the foreground, cuboid configurations.