Raoul Dufy
(1877-1953)
Village Provençal
Pencil on paper
18” x 24”; 45.5 x 61cm
Born in 1877, Raoul Dufy was one of the leading artists associated with Fauvism; a loose alliance of artists active in the early 20 th Century, spearheaded by Henri Matisse and André Derain. The painterly, expressive works, rendered in strong colours which were produced by these artists earned them the nickname les Fauves, or ‘the wild beasts’.
Dufy’s artistic education began at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he enrolled in night classes, before subsequently receiving a scholarship to study full-time at the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. Initially, Dufy painted in the fashionable Impressionist style, before being exposed to Fauvism at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, after encountering works by Matisse and Derain. The work of Matisse and his use of colour would be extremely influential on Dufy throughout his career.
However, although his best-known works are Fauvist in style, Dufy was highly experimental. In 1907, following an exhibition of Paul Cézanne’s work, he briefly adopted a more structured style, with comparatively muted colours. Furthermore, whilst working with Georges Braque and Émile-Othon Friesz in 1908–1909, his work took on a distinctly Cubist nature. He explored a range of mediums, producing a series of woodcuts, designs for a textile company, ceramics, and tapestries. He was also an illustrator, draftsman, and printmaker, creating etchings and drawings throughout the 1920s and 30s.
Dufy’s best known works date from the late 1910s and throughout the 1920s, and he is particularly celebrated for works depicting the South of France, as in Village Provençal. The French Riviera in the 1920s was a centre of culture, creativity and glamour — the bright sunlight and brilliant colours of which inspired many famous artists working in France in the first half of the 20th Century; famously Pablo Picasso and Dufy’s fellow Fauvist, Matisse. Dufy’s works from this period and region are characterised by the lively, carefree, loose lines seen in Village Provençal; an exuberant, playful landscape which so accurately reflects the joie de vivre which the artist associated with this area of France. As Gertrude Stein once wrote of Dufy; “One must meditate about pleasure. Raoul Dufy is pleasure”.
Dufy’s work was celebrated within his lifetime and beyond; a commission for the 26th Venice Biennale won him the International Grand Prix for painting in 1952, a year before his death. His works are held in eminent private and public collections across the globe, including the Musée d’Orsay, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
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