III

The line of the horizon

When he arrived at the Villa Medici, the days when he painted his first canvases on the Normandy coast were not far behind him. Even then he loved to watch the line of the horizon, which raised a deep question in him: what might lie beyond it?

The Italian beaches encouraged him to explore that question further. From his studio at the Villa, the Mediterranean landscapes before his eyes shaped the subjects that would, from then on, be his own.