Between 1922 and 1925 Soutine divided his time between Paris and Cagnes. Cagnes, a resort town on the French Riviera, is situated in the foothills of the Alpes Maritimes. After a period of repeated failures and disappointments, Soutine finally produced in Cagnes a number of fine canvases, quite different in color and mood from those he had made in Céret. Rue de Cagnes-sur-Mer presents a street with a winding road of stairs leading up a hill. Soutine painted the view from a very close distance and the stepped road invites one to enter the village. The viewer therefore feels as if he is in the center of the scenery. The serene blue sky is distinct from the red earth, and the forms are large and clear. The yellow and white houses with their red tiled roofs look anthropomorphic: climbing up the hill, stumbling down and curving in and out on their way. On the right, there is a green patch and a group of trees; two figures are seated underneath, one wearing a red hat and the other a yellow one. The green patch and trees appear like a boat sailing toward the houses on the left, and the branches of the trees seem to swell as though they were sails. The curvilinear lines make the stairs look like the waves of a turbulent sea. At the same time, the dense, red, viscous texture anticipates the flesh of beef carcasses that Soutine would paint in 1925. This floating, red substance suggests a cry of terror which he said had possessed him since childhood, and from which he could never release himself. Heightened luminosity and the brilliance of the juxtaposed reds, blues, and greens lend a fairy-tale quality to the picture. The feeling is supported by graceful rhythms of large, curved brushstrokes. The black shading at the borders of each prismatic hue and its heavy concentration at the bottom right intensify both the colors and the drama in the painting.