Along withan-Gogh and Matisse Raoul Dufy is possibly... Lot 112

Along withan-Gogh and Matisse Raoul Dufy is possibly one of the most popular artists of the past two decades. His repute owes much to his paintings of colorful scenes of racecourses regattas and popular festivities. Dufy was born in 1877 in Le Havre in Northwest France. After completing his military service he gained entry to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Here he became acquainted with the Impressionists and came under their influence. From 1905 he became active in the new Fauve movement together with Matisse and Derain. The painting on auction was executed in 1905 at the height of Dufy's currently much appreciated Fauve period. Among the few artists and friends quick to discover Dufy's great talent and originality was Gertrude Stein. In a well-known article published in 1935 Stein urged her readers to meditate about the extreme pleasure that Dufy's art induces: "One must meditate about pleasure. Dufy is pleasure. Think of the color and it is not that; and the line and it is not that; but it is that which is all together and which is the color that is in Dufy." For Stein pleasure was part of the artist's work ethic: "I always think of Dufy and the etching of the kitchen utensils and the sofa and the Moulin de la Galette war rheumatism no nothing touches it it is always in a state of pleasure". Stein was also one of the first critics to point out Dufy's instinct for abstract structure: "...think of Dufy nobody calls him abstract but he is he does not paint what he sees he paints what he is and certainly it is not what anybody else sees... Dufy... abstracts the colors of which he is made and he puts them down in the light and shade of which he is made and his eyes have little to do with it". (Gertrude Stein 1946 in- Raoul Dufy 1877-1953 Exhibition cat. Hayward Gallery London 9 November 1983- 5 February 1984 pp. 67). Dufy's gift for abstract structure became apparent as early as 1905-1906. In his earliest works the artist depicted the street scenes and popular cel