This proven�al scene from the 1930s almost has a degree of abstraction. The artist Alice Kohn''s�s artist�s gaze is intrigued by shapes and shades and juxtapositions of colours. The painting is dominated by warm, earthy tones: sandy yellows, ochres, and reddish browns for the ground, with deep greens and cool blues for the trees and the distant hills. Note how the painting renders the heat of a summer�s day in Provence perfectly: the sky is a pale blue-grey, suggesting the intense midday light which can wash out colours and create a high contrast between light and shadow.Woman painters of the early 20th Century often had fascinating lives. By definition, were fearless, unconventional, adventurous. They needed to be, to carve out their place in a still male-dominated world. Alice Kohn (born 1902) is a case in point.Born into a provincial middle class Jewish family, Alice painted and exhibited while moonlighting as an actress and singer on stage and on the radio, modelled for Pi...