Lot 214
  • 214

RAOUL DUFY | Marine

Estimate
350,000 - 450,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Raoul Dufy
  • Marine
  • Stamped R Dufy (toward lower right)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 21 1/4 by 25 5/8 in.
  • 54.1 by 65 cm
  • Painted circa 1905.

Provenance

Wilhelm Speth, Belgium (acquired circa 1920)
Private Collection, Belgium (by descent from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Condition

The canvas is strip lined. There is a line of discoloration along the bottom and right edges, not visible when framed. Under Uv light, there are broad strokes of possible inpainting along the upper part of the left edge and in the upper left corner which fluoresce. The work is in good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Dufy believed that the decisive turning point in his career occurred at the Salon d’Automne of 1905, where he saw Matisse’s Fauve masterpiece Luxe, calme et volupté. At that point Dufy claimed: “I understood the new raison d’être of painting and impressionist realism lost its charm for me as I beheld this miracle of the creative imagination at play, in color and drawing” (quoted in Jacques Lassaigne, Dufy, New York, 1954, p. 22). Dufy began incorporating the bright hues favored by the Fauves, but softened his palette with pastel shades of pink, pale blue, lavender and yellow. The year following this encounter proved seminal for Dufy, who exhibited in both the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne, in addition to holding his first solo show at the gallery of Berthe Weill in Paris. As Alvin Martin and Judi Freeman write: “What distinguished the work of the Fauves from Le Havre (Dufy, Friesz and Braque) from that of Matisse and company was the treatment of surface and color. Whereas the Norman artists have been steadfastly loyal to the Impressionist approach to painting, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and the others borrowed extensively from the far more audacious generation that succeeded the Impressionists. The Norman Fauves found irresistible the full-blown Fauve manner of painting, characterized by highly saturated color and the laying in of brilliant tones side by side, and they inevitably responded to it in their own work, produced back in their native Normandy” (Alvin Martin & Judi Freeman, “The Distant Cousins in Normandy: Braque, Dufy and Friesz,” in The Fauve Landscape, New York, 1990, pp. 221-22).



Fanny Guillon-Laffaille has kindly confirmed that this work will be included in the second supplement of the Catalogue raisonné de l'Oeuvre peint de Raoul Dufy currently in preparation.