Raoul Dufy

Bièvres, Moulin de Vauboyen, Raoul Dufy, 1968-69
Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953, 1970, no. 23

Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Geneva, 1972, vol. I, no. 208, illustrated in colour p. 179

The canvas has not been lined. There are some horizontal lines of stable cracking primarily visible in the lighter pigments toward the bottom of the composition. Minor frame abrasion is visible toward the outer edges of the composition as well as to the upper-left corner. A little surface dirt is visible toward the bottom of the canvas but overall the colors are rich and vibrant. Under UV light: certain pigments fluoresce and pindot sized spots of inpainting are visible throughout the lighter pigments toward the bottom of the composition. A few small strokes are visible in the flowers including in the white and yellow flower at center-left. No other inpainting is immediately apparent though a masking layer of varnish is difficult to read through. The work is otherwise in a very good state.
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The year 1905 had marked a turning point in Dufy’s career; he embraced Fauvism and worked in this style for nearly two years to follow, and in 1906 he exhibited his work in the Salon d’Automne for the first time. Painted in 1907, Bouquet de fleurs dans un vase dates this to Dufy’s most innovative period. Less concerned with depth and space, Dufy focuses on colour, composition and geometrical construction in this work. He uses a flattened background and a high colour contrast to draw attention to the clearly defined forms.

Dora Perez-Tibi has written of this period, 'The…rapid maturing of Dufy’s Fauve style is evident, from the beginning of 1907, by a desire for refinement and simplification, both in his composition and in his transposition of visible appearances…The palette, too, becomes internalized, finding new resonances: a harmony of colour, limited to blues and yellows, sometimes meeting in a sea-green…, is warmed by a yellow or red…This simplification and lack of ornamentation allow Dufy to give his composition the greatest possible intensity. This desire to stress linear rhythm in the construction of his composition is seen in the works painted in 1907…' (Dora Perez-Tibi, Dufy, London, 1989, pp. 31-32).