The White Shaft Antibes France

In The White Shaft, Antibes, André Smith depicts the medieval Grimaldi Tower rising above a quiet square in the old town of Antibes, France.

In The White Shaft, Antibes, André Smith takes the Grimaldi Tower in the old town of Antibes as his central subject. The tall stone tower rises like a pale shaft through the middle of the composition, its blocks of masonry carefully outlined and a single bell hanging in the arched opening near its top, where small plants sprout from the weathered stone. At its base, a small shrine holds a statue of a saint above a fountain, and a street lamp stands nearby. Around the square, everyday life carries on: a woman tends plants on a terrace at left beside a café table, figures rest in the shade, an elderly woman with a cane makes her way across the paving stones, and at right a figure stands with a child near a bare tree and a cart. Behind the tower, rooftops, chimneys and a smaller bell tower crowd together, and a church façade with a round window and pediment closes the view at right. Birds circle overhead, and lightly outlined clouds drift through the open sky. Smith's crisp line work and the contrast between the bright tower and the shaded buildings around it give the scene a calm, sunlit Mediterranean character.