| Raoul Dufy |
Le Cavalier arabe (Le Cavalier blanc), 1914, oil on canvas, 66 x 81 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
|
| Born |
3 June 1877
Le Havre, France |
| Died |
23 March 1953 (aged 75)
Forcalquier, France |
| Nationality |
French |
| Field |
Painting, drawing, design, printmaking |
| Training |
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts |
| Movement |
Fauvism, impressionism, modernism, cubism |
| Works |
La Fée Electricité (1937) |
Raoul Dufy (
French: [ʁa.ul dy.fi]; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French
Fauvist
painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became
fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative
schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social
events. He was also a
draftsman,
printmaker, book
illustrator,
Scenic designer, a designer of furniture, and a planner of public spaces.
Biography
Raoul Dufy was born into a large family at
Le Havre, in
Normandy.
He left school at the age of fourteen to work in a coffee-importing
company. In 1895, when he was 18, he started taking evening classes in
art at Le Havre's École d'Art (municipal art school). The classes were
taught by Charles Lhuillier, who had been, forty years earlier, a
student of the remarkable French portrait-painter,
Ingres. There, Dufy met
Raymond Lecourt and
Othon Friesz with whom he later shared a studio in
Montmartre and to whom he remained a lifelong friend. During this period, Dufy painted mostly Norman landscapes in watercolors.
In 1900, after a year of military service, Raoul Dufy won a scholarship to the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where again he crossed paths with Othon Friesz. (He was there when
Georges Braque also was studying.) He concentrated on improving his drawing skills. The
impressionist landscape painters, such as
Claude Monet and
Camille Pissarro, influenced Dufy profoundly. His first exhibition (at the Exhibition of French Artists) took place in 1901. Introduced to
Berthe Weill
in 1902, Dufy showed his work in her gallery. Then he exhibited again
in 1903 at the Salon des Independants. A boost to his confidence: the
painter,
Maurice Denis, bought one of his paintings. Dufy continued to paint, often in the vicinity of Le Havre, and, in particular, on the beach at
Sainte-Adresse, made famous by
Eugène Boudin and
Claude Monet. In 1904, with his friend,
Albert Marquet, he worked in
Fecamp on the
English Channel (La Manche).
Henri Matisse's
Luxe, Calme et Volupté,
which Dufy saw at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, was a revelation
to the young artist, and it directed his interests towards
Fauvism.
Les Fauves
(the wild beasts) emphasized bright color and bold contours in their
work. Dufy's painting reflected this aesthetic until about 1909, when
contact with the work of
Paul Cézanne
led him to adopt a somewhat subtler technique. It was not until 1920,
however, after he had flirted briefly with yet another style,
cubism,
that Dufy developed his own distinctive approach. It involved skeletal
structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin
washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that came to be known as
stenographic.
Dufy's cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the time period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the
French Riviera,
chic parties, and musical events. The optimistic, fashionably
decorative, and illustrative nature of much of his work has meant that
his output has been less highly-valued critically than the works of
artists who have addressed a wider range of social concerns.
Dufy completed one of the largest paintings ever contemplated, a huge and immensely popular ode to electricity, the fresco
La Fée Electricité for the
1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris.
Dufy also acquired a reputation as an illustrator and as a commercial
artist. He painted murals for public buildings; he also produced a huge
number of tapestries and ceramic designs. His plates appear in books by
Guillaume Apollinaire,
Stéphane Mallarmé, and
André Gide.
In 1909, Raoul Dufy was commissioned by
Paul Poiret to design stationery for the house, and after 1912
[1] designed textile
patterns for Bianchini-Ferier used in Poiret's
[2] and
Charvet's
[3] garments.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Dufy exhibited at the annual
Salon des Tuileries in Paris. By 1950, his hands were struck with
rheumatoid arthritis
and his ability to paint diminished, as he has to fasten the brush to
his hand. In April he went to Boston to undergo an experimental
treatment with
cortisone and
corticotropin, based on the work of
Philip S. Hench. It proved successful, and some of his next works were dedicated to the doctors and researchers in the United States.
[4][5] In 1952 he received the grand prize for painting in the 26th
Venice Biennale. Dufy died at
Forcalquier, France, on 23 March 1953, of intestinal bleeding, which is a likely result of his continuous treatment. He was buried near
Matisse in the Cimiez Monastery Cemetery in
Cimiez, a suburb of the city of
Nice.
Works
Notes
- Tourlonias, Anne (1998). Raoul Dufy, l'œuvre en soie (in French). Avignon: Barthelemy. p. 41. ISBN 2-87923-094-2. "Le 1er mar 1912, Raoul Dufy et Charles Bianchini signent le contrat."
- Hay, Susan (1999). From
Paris to Providence, Fashion, Art and the Tirocchi Dressmakers' Shop,
1915–1947 ("Modernism in Fabric: Art and the Tirocchi Textiles"). Rhode Island School of Design.
- Raoul
Dufy: Paintings, Drawings, Illustrated Books, Mural Decorations,
Aubusson Tapestries, Fabric Designs and Fabrics for Bianchini-Férier,
Paul Poiret Dresses, Ceramics, Posters, Theatre Designs. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. 1983. p. 106.
- Harris JC (2010-04-01). "LA cortisone". Archives of General Psychiatry 67 (4): 317–317. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.29. ISSN 0003-990X. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
- health.com. "11 Famous People With Rheumatoid Arthritis". Retrieved 2013-02-23.
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