Perspective

Fields of Flowers in Bloom, Near Caen, 1904, by Jean Metzinger, French, 1883-1956.  Oil on canvas.  Minneapolis Institutes of Arts.

Aren't the colors in this painting energizing.  The use of contrasts and overlap is very interesting to study and even more beneficial when looking at the actual painting in the museum.

As with other Neo-Impressionists, Metzinger also used the fragmentation of light to render landscape images.  Notice that is not the shade of the colors used as much as the use of perspective and size to create distance.  As the pink flowers move further back into the distance, the blossom heads get smaller and smaller.  The curvature of the rows recede into a single-point perspective and lead the eye of the viewer back to the small, purple trees.  The mountains in the background are a paler shade of purple, and is the most obvious place where shade impacts depth.

Interesting to note that this painting was created when Metzinger was 20 or 21 years old.