Raoul Dufy Vintage 1954 French Art Exhibition Poster

Professionally mounted and framed in maple.

Finished total size: 24" x 34"

This is a vintage poster, not a reprint.

Raoul Dufy has swiftly become a new favorite of mine. This passage written by Sam Hunter sums him up in a delightful little snapshot.

"After painting as a Fauve, Dufy was in turn influenced by Cézanne and the Cubists. He continued following along the paths of modern art with a sprightly and charming step all his own during the next decade, developing a personal idiom that emphasized graphic elements, that was tender and decorative in color, and that gave a witty and worldly twist to the serious art of his time. He painted a sophisticated and pleasure-loving world with a curiously innocent and detached eye, in piquant colors and with an ingenious, faintly mocking line."

Raoul Dufy was a French artist and designer whose paintings and prints portrayed leisure activities and urban landscapes. He created airy washes of light and shade, into which he would draw bold calligraphic brushstrokes. The artist's breezy yet experimental use of color was influenced both by Claude Monet and his Fauvist peer Henri Matisse. “Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones it will always stay blue,” the artist mused. “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.” Born June 3, 1877 in Le Havre, France, he enrolled in night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts before studying under Léon Bonnat at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts on a scholarship. Dufy first encountered Fauvism at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, after which he adapted the style to his own purposes. During his life, the artist traveled both abroad and within France, painting views of the Mediterranean city of Nice, as well as scenes of horse races and regattas. Throughout the 1920s, Dufy worked in a variety of materials, producing ceramics, tapestry hangings, and large-scale architectural decorations. His commission for the 26th Venice Biennale won him the International Grand Prix for painting in 1952, a year before his death on March 23, 1953 in Forcalquier, France. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.