Raoul Dufy
'La Danse' (Dance) — French Cubist Woodcut
1910

Name: 'La Danse' (Dance) — French Cubist Woodcut
Brand: Raoul Dufy
Price: 900 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Raoul Dufy, 'La Danse' (Dance), woodcut, 1910. A proof impression before the second edition of 220 in 1953; with the estate stamp 'ATELIER RAOUL DUFY' in the lower right margin; the blind stamp 'GG' in the lower left sheet corner. Annotated 'E/Z' in pencil, beneath the estate stamp; and 'bois original' in the margin, lower left. Titled in the block, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper; the full sheet with wide margins (3 1/2 to 6 3/4 inches); slight toning at the bottom and right sheet edges, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 12 5/16 x 12 1/2 inches (313 x 318 mm); sheet size 19 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches (502 x 654 mm). Collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Nasher Museum of Art (Duke University), Toledo Art Museum. From the suite of four woodcuts entitled 'Les Plaisirs de la Paix' (The Pleasures of Peace), published by Éditions de La Sirène, Paris in 1926. The other three works in the series are 'La Peche' (Fishing), 'La Chase' (The Hunt), and 'L'amore' (Love). See our other listings for 'La Peche' and 'L'amore'. Collections: Brooklyn Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Minneapolis Art Institute, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, National Gallery of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, RISD Museum, Yale University Art Gallery. ABOUT THE ARTIST French painter and designer Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) is widely admired for his spontaneous, brightly colored, decorative landscapes and social scenes, and for his accomplished work in the diverse disciplines of printmaking, fabric design, illustration, and ceramics. In 1900 Dufy went to Paris to attend the École des Beaux-Arts. He painted in an Impressionist style in his early work, but by 1905 he had begun to employ the broad brushstrokes and bright colors typical of the Fauve artists. A 1907 exhibition of Paul Cézanne’s work inspired Dufy to adopt, albeit only temporarily, more subdued colors and structured compositions. He worked in a Cubist-influenced style with the painters Georges Braque and Émile-Othon Friesz between 1908 and 1909 but soon returned to his more spontaneous Fauvist approach. Dufy was also an accomplished printmaker, designer, and ceramicist. In 1910 he produced a series of woodcuts to illustrate poet Guillaume Apollinaire’s Bestiary. He began to create designs for a textile company in 1912, and in the 1920s, he designed ceramics and tapestries. In the early 1920s, Dufy rededicated himself to painting and began to produce what are now his best-known works. His distinctive style is characterized by bright colors thinly spread over a white ground, with objects sketchily delineated by sensuously undulating lines. Dufy took as his subjects scenes of recreation and spectacle, including horse races, regattas, parades, and concerts. He spent much of his time on the French Riviera and produced a series of paintings of Nice (1927), the Bois de Boulogne (1929), and Deauville (1930). He also worked as an illustrator and printmaker, creating whimsical etchings and lithographs in the 1920s and ’30s. His lively, carefree, elegant style gained great popularity, and his works continue to enjoy widespread appreciation today. Dufy’s work can be found in numerous museum collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, Design Museum Gent (Belgium), Detroit Museum of Art, LACMA Collections, Le Havre Museum (France), Madrid Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice (France), Museum Hundertwasser (Austria), Museum of Modern Art, Harvard Art Museums, National Gallery of Art, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Tate Modern (London), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London).

Creator:

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953, French)

Creation Year:

1910

Dimensions:

Height: 12.32 in (31.3 cm)Width: 15.82 in (40.19 cm)

Medium:

Woodcut

Movement & Style:

Cubist

Period:

1910-1919

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Myrtle Beach, SC

Reference Number:

Seller: 1020101stDibs: LU532310408282

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Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy was a renowned French Fauvist painter, famous for his colorful, decorative designs. He was born in Le Havre, Normandy, in 1877. Dufy had a simple upbringing, leaving school at 14 to work at a Brazilian coffee-importing company. His formal artistic education began when he was eighteen at Le Havre's École des Beaux-Arts, where he took evening art classes. He continued to paint within the purlieu of Le Havre and was greatly inspired by the Impressionist landscape painters Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. In 1900, after serving in the military for one year, Dufy won a scholarship to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Dufy began painting watercolors of the Norman landscapes but was soon widely celebrated for his brightly colored and bold contoured paintings – in dialogue with the Fauvist style. He remained faithful to Fauvism until Paul Cézanne’s work guided him to embrace a subtler aesthetic. This new mode of sobriety saw his work return to a lighter style, which he celebrated through rapid inscription-like drawings over vivid backgrounds of color washes.

The rise of Cubism in Paris during the first two decades of the 20th century influenced him to develop a systematic approach that was later known as stenographics. Using this he experimented with foreshortened perspective, thin washes of paint and skeletal structures. In this style, he portrayed the lavish scenes of the French Riviera, leisureliness of the period, and chic revelries. Dufy was also fascinated by other amusements such as regattas, horse races and concerts and loved to depict the excitement and commotion of the crowds.

Dufy had his first exhibition in 1901 at the Salon des Artistes Français, following a string of exhibitions over the following years. In 1906 he took part in the Cercle de l’Art Moderne Exhibition in Le Havre with artists Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Henri Charles Manguin. Dufy was given his first retrospective in 1921 at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and in 1932 his first painting was accepted into a national collection. He celebrated two large commissions for the 1937 Exposition Internationals des Artes et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. The most notable of the two was the adornment for the Pavilion of Light and Electricity. He was commissioned with the task to illustrate the history of electricity from the classical era to its current position in 20th century developments. He painted La Fée électricité, a huge fresco which was donated to the Musée d’Art Moderne in 1964. In 1952 he represented France at the 26th Venice Biennale, where he won the Gran Premio. A year later he died aged 75, of polyarthritis, an illness he had been suffering from since 1937.

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(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)