Saturday

It seems that we can enter this almost life-size room, depicted by André Derain. Perhaps we are already in it, next to the three women. The hostess with sharp features has something to say to the servant, tearing herself away from the book, with her finger between the pages, and the girl with needlework concentrates on her fine work. Each of them could become a separate portrait.
They have narrow long figures with elongated necks, the heads are slightly turned and tilted, the gestures of thin fingers are significant, and the folds on the clothes are laid tight and carefully, as well as all the other draperies. The gloomy color, the simplicity of the scene with an autonomous still life on the table and the laconic landscape outside the window complement the similarity with medieval paintings. This impression is confirmed by the fact that the bedside table on the left, the table and the fireplace are drawn in the reverse perspective.
Derain painted this panel in the years of Gothic art and African wooden sculpture popularity, which made the figures of women resemble statues, and their faces looked like the clear relief of expressive masks.
At the same time, it is not so easy to enter this world, not only because it paradoxically combines the Archaic with Modernity and multi-layered narrowness with the sense of detachment. The strangeness of this world is tender and fragile, almost divine. It is cleaned, done out, decorated with flowers. Breathing seems to slow down in it. It is believed that the name Saturday is given to this painting by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Saturday is the day of rest, and the maid looks warmly, thinking about her own things. And eventually, the viewer's eyes leave this room to the right, where the alley lined with trees carries it away to the distant horizon.