Raoul Dufy[p] (
3 June 1877 –
23 March 1953) was a
French Fauvist painter. He developed a colourful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics, textiles and decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events.
Biography
Raoul Dufy was born at
Le Havre, in
Normandy, one of a family of nine members. He left school at the age of 14 to work in a coffee importing company. In 1895 when he was 18, he started evening classes in art at Le Havre
École des Beaux-Arts. He and
Othon Friesz, a school friend, studied the works of
Eugène Boudin in the museum in Le Havre.
In 1900, after a year of military service, Raoul won a scholarship enabling him to attend the
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, in
Paris, where he was a fellow student with
Georges Braque. The
impressionist landscapists, such as
Claude Monet and
Camille Pissarro, influenced him.
Introduced to
Berthe Weill in 1902, she showed his work in her gallery.
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 directed his interest towards
Fauvism. Les Fauves (wild beasts) emphasised bright colour and rich bold contours in their work, and Dufy’s painting reflects this approach until about 1909, when contact with the work of
Paul Cézanne led him to adopt a somewhat subtler technique. It was not until 1920, after he had flirted briefly with yet another style,
cubism, that Dufy developed his own distinctive approach involving skeletal structures, arranged in a diminished perspective, and the use of light washes of colour put on by swift brush strokes in a manner that came to be known as
stenographic.
Dufy's cheerful oils and watercolours depict events of the time period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the
French Riviera, chic parties and musical events. The optimistic and fashionably decorative and illustrative nature of much of his work has meant that his output is less highly critically valued than artists who treat a wider range of social concerns.
In 1938, Dufy completed one of the largest paintings ever done, a huge and immensely popular epic to electricity, the fresco
La Fée Electricité for the
Exposition Internationale in Paris.
Dufy also acquired a reputation as an illustrator and an applied artist. He changed the face of local fashion and fabric design with his work for
Paul Poiret. He painted murals for public buildings, as well as produced a prodigious number of tapestries and ceramic designs. His plates appear in books by
Guillaume Apollinaire,
Stéphane Mallarmé and
André Gide.
Dufy died near
Forcalquier, France, on 23 March 1953, and was buried not far from
Matisse in the Cimiez Monastery Cemetery in
Cimiez, a suburb of the city of
Nice, France.
Work outside of painting
In 1909, Raoul Dufy was commissioned by
Paul Poiret to design stationery for the house, and also designed textile
patterns used in Poiret's garments.
Works
