Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953), , Nature Morte et

Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953)Nature Morte et BateauxSigned bottom center, gouache on paper laid down on board.Executed circa 1923.19 1/2 x 25 9/16 in. (49.5 x 64.9cm)PROVENANCE:Mr. and Mrs. Alexander London, New York, New York.Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture," May 31, 1972, lot 56.Collection of Dr. Henry and Mrs. Fannie Levine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (acquired directly from the above sale).LITERATURE:Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Raoul Dufy: Catalogue Raisonné des Aquarelles, Gouaches et Pastels, Volume 2, Paris: Éditions Louis Carré, 1981, no. 1488.NOTE:This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity (no. A20-9514) signed by Fanny Guillon-Laffaille. We gratefully acknowledge her kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.Raoul Dufy began his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Later, Dufy received a scholarship to study full-time at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. There, he trained under Léon Bonnat, whose style lay somewhere between Academic art and Impressionism. Not surprisingly, Dufy's early school work showed a distinctly Impressionistic style.In 1905, Dufy visited the Salon des Indépendants where, for the first time, he took in the richly hued paintings of Henri Matisse and André Derain. Their unusually dramatic use of color caused the critic Louis Vauxcelles to dub them "fauves," meaning "beasts" and had a tremendous impact on the young Dufy. From then on, Dufy began actively incorporating the Fauvist pure, bright palette in his landscapes and views of the Mediterranean. In particular, the color blue figured prominently in much of the artist's work thereafter. Dufy once remarked, "Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones…it will always stay blue…whereas yellow is blackened in its shades, and fades away when lightened; red when darkened becomes brown, and diluted with white is no longer red, but another color-pink."In the present work, the aquamarine blue of the sea covers the sheet from top to bottom and left to right. The expanse of the sea is heightened by a flattened out perspective, where a single swimmer frolics at center. Ships with full, white sails and whimsical tiny waves dance across the upper section of the canvas, while seafood feasts at table at the bottom together remind the viewer of the delights of the Mediterranean.