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Raoul Dufy
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
French painter and designer
noted for his brightly coloured and highly decorative scenes of luxury and
pleasure.
In 1900 Dufy went to Paris to
attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but the conventional art of the past did not attract
him. Rather he was fascinated by the vibrant colour juxtapositions of the Impressionists
and Post-impressionists, whose styles he adopted. By 1904 Dufy had abandoned the
Impressionist style and had begun to work in the flat areas of bright colour typical of
the Fauvist
style. But in 1908-09, while working with the Cubist painters Georges Braque and
Émile-Othon Friesz, he changed his style again and temporarily adopted subdued colours
and a Cubist manner of composition. He then did woodcuts as illustrations for books, and
his success in this medium encouraged him to design textiles and eventually to produce
ceramics and tapestries.
In the early 1920s Dufy
rededicated himself to painting and began producing what are now his best-known works. His
distinctive style is characterized by bright, decorative colours thinly spread over a
white ground, with objects sketchily delineated by sensuously undulating lines. Dufy took
as his subjects scenes of recreation and spectacle, including horse races and regattas,
parades, and concerts. He spent much time on the French Riviera and produced series of
paintings of Nice (1927), the Bois de Boulogne (1929), and Deauville (1930). Though very
popular, his lively, carefree, elegant paintings have been criticized as occasionally
bordering on the superficial.
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