Marc Chagall

L'ile de Saint-Louis by Marc Chagall

1959

Emprunt 6% Souscrivez (War Loan 6% Subscribe) Signed "Raoul Dufy" (lower right) Gouache on paper This vibrant gouache on paper by the renowned Raoul Dufy is not only a work of exceptional artistry, but also represents an important period in world history. The piece was a special commission ordered by the French government, who sought to encourage the French people to join in the post-war reconstruction efforts. Following World War I, the French government was destitute. The cost of the Great War had been tremendous not only in lives lost, but also in terms of infrastructure and finances. In order to reclaim its place as a great power on the world stage, France needed funds to reconstruct its key industries, and quickly. Thus, the government turned to one of the most famous French artists of the day - Raoul Dufy - to create this gouache on paper as an advertisement for the country's war bonds. The extraordinary work represents Dufy's own sense of patriotic duty. Entirely unique in his oeuvre, it is clear that Dufy wished to create something truly special to help his war-torn country. The artist deftly captures the industry of France in the colorful composition, showcasing bridges, buildings, ships and other key elements of the country's infrastructure in order to evoke the viewers' pride, patriotism and willingness to help. The words Emprunt 6% Souscrivez (War Loan 6% Subscribe) are boldly written across the top, seeking subscribers to a 6% interest loan to help rebuild the country - a very healthy return for the age. The powerful painting represents one of the most effective and extensive patriotic campaigns of all time. France relied heavily on the willingness of its citizens to lend money...

Raoul Dufy 1877-1953 French Chevaux de courses (Racing Horses) Signed and dated "Raoul Dufy 1929" (lower right) Watercolor and gouache on Arches paper Raoul Dufy's fascination wi...

Yvonne Canu 1921-2008 French Saint-Tropez, le port Signed "CANU" (lower right) Oil on canvas The peaceful port of Saint-Tropez is captured in serene detail in this extraordinary...

French Post-Impressionist painter Georges d’Espagnat captures a charming moment between a mother and her child in this vibrant oil on canvas. Rendered with a studied use of complementary colors and bold brushstrokes, the painting showcases the artist's unique Post-Impressionist style. Remembered as one of the most individualistic artists of the 20th century, his distinctive canvases bring together the loose brushwork of the Impressionists and the bold color palette favored by the Fauves. Together, they achieve a vibrant spontaneity that lends itself well to the carefree subjects of the present work. Masterfully composed, La lecture au jardin moves beyond the Impressionist instinct to capture a fleeting moment on canvas. Rather, d'Espagnat succeeds in creating a deep feeling of harmony in the work. Warm colors are perfectly balanced with cool tones, while vertical and horizontal lines are softened by the curves of the foliage and his subjects' figures. Through his simplification of forms and intentional use of color and line, he creates a scene that is carefully designed and thoroughly modern. A similar view of a mother and her child by d'Espagnat is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). The Post-Impressionist painter was an individualist since his youth, choosing to forgo traditional schooling in order to independently study the Old Masters in the Louvre. He soon became involved with the most prominent Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters of the age, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Signac, who themselves existed outside the traditional norms of French Academic training. In 1891, he exhibited at the Salon des Refusés, and again the following year at the Salon des Indépendants. By 1895, he held his first one-man show in Paris, and just three years later his success earned him a solo show at the prestigious Durand-Ruel Gallery. Between 1905 and 1910 he made several trips to visit Renoir on the Côte d’Azur. Their close friendship resulted in a group exhibition at Marcel Bernheim...

Botanical gouache on paper circa 1920 by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy. The work depicts a study of apples and pears. This work was executed by Dufy as a fabric design. Dimensio...

Botanical gouache on paper circa 1920 by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy. The work flowers in red and blues with green foliage against a yellow and white stripped background. Dimensions: Framed: 25"x20" Unframed: 18"x13" Raoul Dufy was one of a family of nine children, including five sisters and a younger brother, Jean Dufy, also destined to become a painter. Their father was an accountant in the employ of a major company in Le Havre. The Dufy family was musically gifted: his father was an organist, as was his brother Léon, and his youngest brother Gaston was an accomplished flautist who later worked as a music critic in Paris. Raoul Dufy's studies were interrupted at the age of 14, when he had to contribute to the family income. He took a job with an importer of Brazilian coffee, but still found time from 1892 to attend evening courses in drawing and composition at the local college of fine arts under Charles Marie Lhullier, former teacher of Othon Friesz and Georges Braque. He spent his free time in museums, admiring the paintings of Eugène Boudin in Le Havre and The Justice of Trajan in Rouen. A municipal scholarship enabled him to leave for Paris in 1900, where he lodged initially with Othon Friesz. He was accepted by the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Léon Bonnat, whose innate conservatism prompted Dufy to remark later that it was 'good to be at the Beaux-Arts providing one knew one could leave'. And leave he did, four years later, embarking with friends and fellow students on the rounds of the major Paris galleries - Ambroise Vollard, Durand-Ruel, Eugène Blot and Berheim-Jeune. For Dufy and his contemporaries, Impressionism represented a rejection of sterile academism in favour of the open-air canvases of Manet, the light and bright colours of the Impressionists, and, beyond them, the daringly innovative work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, Seurat, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Dufy was an out-and-out individualist, however, and was not tempted to imitate any of these artists. He produced, between 1935 and 1937, Fée Electricité (Spirit of Electricity), the emblem for the French utilities company Electricité de France (EDF). Dufy visited the USA for the first time in 1937, as a member of the Carnegie Prize jury. In 1940, the outbreak of war (and his increasingly rheumatic condition) persuaded him to settle in Nice. When he eventually returned to Paris 10 years later, his rheumatism had become so debilitating that he immediately left for Boston to follow a course of pioneering anti-cortisone treatment. He continued working, however, spending time first in Harvard and then in New York City before moving to the drier climate of Tucson, Arizona. The cortisone treatment was by and large unsuccessful, although he did recover the use of his fingers. He returned to Paris in 1951 and decided to settle in Forcalquier, where the climate was more clement. Within a short time, however, he was wheelchair-bound. He died in Forcalquier in March 1953 and was buried in Cimiez. Between 1895 and 1898, Raoul Dufy painted watercolours of landscapes near his native Le Havre and around Honfleur and Falaise. By the turn of the century, however, he was already painting certain subjects that were to become hallmarks of his work - flag-decked Parisian cityscapes, Normandy beaches teeming with visitors, regattas and the like, including one of his better-known early works, Landing Stage at Ste-Adresse. By 1905-1906 Friesz, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Van Dongen and Rouault were described collectively as Fauves (the wild beasts). What they had in common was a desire to innovate, but they felt constrained nonetheless to meet formally to set out the guiding principles of what promised to be a new 'movement'. Dufy quickly established that those principles were acceptable; moreover, he was most impressed by one particular painting by Henri Matisse ( Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness) which, to Dufy, embodied both novelty and a sense of artistic freedom. Dufy promptly aligned himself with the Fauves. Together with Albert Marquet in particular, he spent his time travelling the Normandy coast and painting views similar...

Botanical watercolour and gouache on paper circa 1920 by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy. The work depicts flowers in red and butterflies in blues, yellows, black and white. This work was executed by Dufy as a fabric design. Dimensions: Framed: 17"x27" Unframed: 10"x20" Provenance: Private collection of works by Raoul Dufy for Bianchini Ferier Bianchini Ferrier Collection - Christie's London - July 2001 SF Fall Show Raoul Dufy was one of a family of nine children, including five sisters and a younger brother, Jean Dufy, also destined to become a painter. Their father was an accountant in the employ of a major company in Le Havre. The Dufy family was musically gifted: his father was an organist, as was his brother Léon, and his youngest brother Gaston was an accomplished flautist who later worked as a music critic in Paris. Raoul Dufy's studies were interrupted at the age of 14, when he had to contribute to the family income. He took a job with an importer of Brazilian coffee, but still found time from 1892 to attend evening courses in drawing and composition at the local college of fine arts under Charles Marie Lhullier, former teacher of Othon Friesz and Georges Braque. He spent his free time in museums, admiring the paintings of Eugène Boudin in Le Havre and The Justice of Trajan in Rouen. A municipal scholarship enabled him to leave for Paris in 1900, where he lodged initially with Othon Friesz. He was accepted by the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Léon Bonnat, whose innate conservatism prompted Dufy to remark later that it was 'good to be at the Beaux-Arts providing one knew one could leave'. And leave he did, four years later, embarking with friends and fellow students on the rounds of the major Paris galleries - Ambroise Vollard, Durand-Ruel, Eugène Blot and Berheim-Jeune. For Dufy and his contemporaries, Impressionism represented a rejection of sterile academism in favour of the open-air canvases of Manet, the light and bright colours of the Impressionists, and, beyond them, the daringly innovative work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, Seurat, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Dufy was an out-and-out individualist, however, and was not tempted to imitate any of these artists. He produced, between 1935 and 1937, Fée Electricité (Spirit of Electricity), the emblem for the French utilities company Electricité de France (EDF). Dufy visited the USA for the first time in 1937, as a member of the Carnegie Prize jury. In 1940, the outbreak of war (and his increasingly rheumatic condition) persuaded him to settle in Nice. When he eventually returned to Paris 10 years later, his rheumatism had become so debilitating that he immediately left for Boston to follow a course of pioneering anti-cortisone treatment. He continued working, however, spending time first in Harvard and then in New York City before moving to the drier climate of Tucson, Arizona. The cortisone treatment was by and large unsuccessful, although he did recover the use of his fingers. He returned to Paris in 1951 and decided to settle in Forcalquier, where the climate was more clement. Within a short time, however, he was wheelchair-bound. He died in Forcalquier in March 1953 and was buried in Cimiez. Between 1895 and 1898, Raoul Dufy painted watercolours of landscapes near his native Le Havre and around Honfleur and Falaise. By the turn of the century, however, he was already painting certain subjects that were to become hallmarks of his work - flag-decked Parisian cityscapes, Normandy beaches teeming with visitors, regattas and the like, including one of his better-known early works, Landing Stage at Ste-Adresse. By 1905-1906 Friesz, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Van Dongen and Rouault were described collectively as Fauves (the wild beasts). What they had in common was a desire to innovate, but they felt constrained nonetheless to meet formally to set out the guiding principles of what promised to be a new 'movement'. Dufy quickly established that those principles were acceptable; moreover, he was most impressed by one particular painting by Henri Matisse ( Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness) which, to Dufy, embodied both novelty and a sense of artistic freedom. Dufy promptly aligned himself with the Fauves. Together with Albert Marquet in particular, he spent his time travelling the Normandy coast and painting views similar...

La Baie des Anges a Nice et le Casino is a lovely gouache on paper from 1928. The work is fully authenticated by Fanny Guillon-Laffaille and is listed in the Raoul Dufy Catalogue Rai...