Raoul Dufy

Estimate

500,000 - 700,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Raoul Dufy
NOGENT-SUR-MARNE
Signed and dated Raoul Dufy 1935 (lower right)
Oil on canvas
51 1/8 by 63 3/8 in.
130 by 161 cm

Provenance

Étienne Bignou, Paris and New York
Arthur Keating, Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago (gifted from the above in 1951 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 11, 1987, lot 61)
Private Collection, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection

Exhibited

Paris, Grand Palais, Salon des artistes indépendants, 47e exposition, 1936, no. 1088
Paris, Galerie Max Kaganovitch, Oeuvres récentes de Raoul Dufy, 1936, no. 30
London, Reid and Lefevre Galleries, Raoul Dufy, 1936, no. 21
London, Reid and Lefevre Galleries, L'Entente Cordiale, 1939, no. 15
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, International Exhibition of Paintings, 1939, no. 197
London, Hayward Gallery, Raoul Dufy, 1983-84, no. 111

Literature

Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, catalogue raisonné des aquarelles, gouaches et pastels, vol. 3, Paris, 1973, no. 949, illustrated p. 23

Catalogue Note

Born in Le Havre, Dufy was always fascinated by the sea as well as the pageantry associated with the fanfare surrounding lively regattas and crew races. He began to explore the subject as early as 1907-08. Dufy saw the sea and rivers as backdrops for human activities and made use of the freedom and dynamism of his composition with strong pure colors to express the smells and sounds associated with the outdoors.

Like all artists of his generation, Dufy was confronted with the fundamental problem of a work of art: how to reconcile the illusion of representation, and the reality of it perceived by the artist himself. The answer lay, for Dufy, in the exploration of color and light. He replaces detail for a more general impression of the elation and celebration of the race, freeing color from the constraints of imitation and representation. The transparent waters are accentuated by the swimmers and boaters who set up optical points of focus against the standing figures along the shoreline. The different vertical bands of green combine with the overall palette to evoke a diversity of light. As Raoul Dufy himself noted, "Unhappy the man who lives in a climate far from the sea, or unfed by the sparkling waters of a river!... The painter constantly needs to be able to see a certain quality of light, a flickering, an airy palpitation bathing what he sees" (Dora Perez-Tibi, Dufy, New York, 1989, p. 158).

Monumental in scale as well as subject matter, Dufy’s Nogent-sur-Marne presents a startling balance of fresh colors injected by lines of speed and precision, imbuing the painting with the elegant joie de vivre characteristic of his finest work.