Raoul Dufy - La Belle Epoq's Story of the Day!
- LaBelleEpoq
- Dec 3, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: May 21, 2021
Raoul Dufy is a French painter, graphic artist, decorator and ceramist, indifferent to academic paintings, he was much more attracted to impressionism, especially the landscapes of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.
In 1906, during his first solo exhibition, he met Henri Matisse and the Fauves, these new wild painters who expressed with bright, clear colours and sharp contour outlined images. Dufy became very inspired by this new trend and his works present those Fauve characteristics between 1906 and 1909.
Later Dufy was subtitled by Paul Cézanne's painting technique. His showed interest in Cubism and only by the 1920s he reached his own original style.
In the hight of his creativity maturity period, Raoul Dufy almost did not use perspective constructions but used light transparent spots of liquid paint, which were superimposed with quick light strokes. This manner was called "stenographic".
Dufy's watercolours and paintings, which depict scenes from the bustling and noisy life at seaside resorts, holiday races in Deauville, yachtsmen...
Dufy was also a famous illustrator and a master of arts and crafts. He collaborated with fashion designers, created carpets, ceramics, and paintings on public buildings. His illustrations adorn the books of Apollinaire, Mallarmé and Gide.
Paintings "Indian woman" and "Acrobats" by Raoul Dufy
Let's find out more about Primitivism and Fauvism with some examples of paintings in these styles.
Primitivism which originated in the late 19th century, contained a deliberate simplification of the picture, making its forms primitive, like a childish artwork or cave paintings from prehistoric times. Paul Gauguin was some of the earliest painters included traditional motifs in his paintings (example "Spirit of the Dead Watching", 1892).
There is another style in the genre called Naive art which according to art critics, does not fall under the definition of "primitivism" since the first means painting by non-professionals, the second - specially stylized painting by professionals.
"Les Acrobats" by Raoul Dufy in 1922 integrates includes Primitivism and simultaneously some Fauve stylistics.
Fauvism was the name assigned to a group of artists whose paintings were presented at the autumn salon of 1906. Besides Matisse and Derain, some other names include Maurice de Vlaminck, Othon Friesz, Georges Rouault, Jean Metzinger, Kees van Dongen, etc. Their paintings left the viewer with a sense of energy and passion, thus the French critic Louis Vausel called these painters Fauveees - wild beasts.
This was the reaction of contemporaries to the exaltation of colour that struck them, the "wild" expressiveness of colours. So a casual statement was fixed as the name of the entire trend. The artists themselves have never recognized this epithet over themselves.
Another example of Primitivism is the "Indian Woman" painted by Raoul Dufy in 1928.
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