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Impressionist & Modern Art
3218* RAOUL DUFY(Le Havre 1877 – 1953 Forcalquier)
La Baignade. 1906.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated lower right: Raoul Dufy
1906.
65 x 81 cm.
Provenance:
- Galerie Louis Carré et Cie., Paris.
- Collection M. Alphonse Bellier, Paris (circa
1966).
- Private collection, France (2009 by de-
scent). This is where the present owner
bought it.
Exhibitions:
- Paris 1962, Les Fauves, Galerie Charpen-
tier, 7 March - 15 June 1962, no. 52 (titled
"Les bains Marie-Christine au Havre").
- Paris 1966, Le Fauvisme français et les
débuts de l'Expressionnisme allemand,
Musée National d'Art Moderne, 15 Ja-
nuary - 6 March 1966; this exhibition was
travelling to Munich, Haus der Kunst, 26
March - 15 May 1966, p. 76, no. 42 (with
ill. p. 86; titled "Bains Marie Christine au
Havre").
- Hamburg 1966, Matisse und seine Freun-
de—les Fauves, Kunstverein, 25 May - 10
July 1966, no. 24 (with ill. plate 18; titled
"Badeplatz Marie-Christine in Le Havre").
- Hamburg 1967/68, Raoul Dufy: Gemäl-
de Aquarelle Gouachen Zeichnungen,
Kunstverein, 16 December 1967 - 4
February 1968, no. 11 (with ill. plate 25).
- Tokyo 1983, Raoul Dufy, Odakyu Grande
Galerie, 8 April - 20 April 1983; this
exhibition was travelling to Nishinomiya,
Le Musée Otani des Beaux-Arts, 24 April
- 22 May 1983; Yokohama Takashimaya,
9 June - 14 July und Gunma, Musée d'Art
Moderne, 28 June - 24 July 1983, no. 2
(with ill.).
- London 1983/84, Raoul Dufy Paintings,
Drawings, Illustrated Books, Mural De-
corations, Aubusson Tapestries, Fabric
Designs and Fabrics or Bianchini-Férier,
Paul Poiret Dresses, Ceramics, Posters,
Theatre Designs Hayward Gallery, 9 No-
vember 1983 - 5 February 1984, no. 14
(betitelt "Les bains de Marie-Christine").
- Saint-Tropez, Les oeuvres Fauves de
Raoul Dufy (1905-1907), Musée de
l'Annonciade, 4 July - 28 September
1987, no. 9 (with ill.; titled "Les bains
Marie-Christine au Havre ou La Baigna-
de").
- Los Angeles, The Fauve Landscape, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, 4 Octo-
ber - 30 December 1990; this exhibition
was travelling to New York, The Metro-
politan Museum of Art, 19 February - 5
May 1991 and London, Royal Academy
of Arts, 10 June - 1 September 1991, p.
294, plate 307 (with.).
Literature:
- Laffaille, Maurice: Raoul Dufy, Catalogue
Raisonné de l' oeuvre peint, Geneva1972,
vol I, p. 129, no. 142 (with ill.).
- Giry, Marcel: Le fauvisme, ses origines,
son évolution, Neuchâtel 1981, p. 205,
no. 104 (with. ill.; titled "Les bains Marie-
Christine à Sainte-Adresse")
Until 1905, Raoul Dufy painted in an
Impressionist style in which he captured
the subdued tonal nuances of his native
Bretagne, similar to Boudin and Monet,
who like himwere born in Le Havre. How-
ever, in March of that year, the 27-year-old
painter experienced an enlightenment,
as he later described it himself. On display
at the Salon des Indépendants was the
painting "Luxe, calme, et volupté" from
Matisse (today in the Musée National d'Art
Moderne, Paris). Although still rendered in
a pointillistic technique, its colours are very
expressive and independent of the object.
Over the summer he then practiced a new
technique of applying colour, intentionally
employing stronger and brighter colours.
The legendary scandal of the works
exhibited in the 7th room at the Salon
d'Automne, which gave Matisse and his
friends the name of “the wild beasts”, i.e.
the "Fauves", confirmed to Dufy that he
was on the right path with brighter colours
in stronger and flatter application.
Dufy painted the present work in the
summer of 1906, a moment regarded
as the climax of Fauvism. While Matisse
and Derain went to the south, Dufy and
Marquet remained in Le Havre. This ba-
thing scene on the beach of Le Havre was
a much-loved theme for Dufy. He was a
painter of luxury and leisure: the pasti-
mes of high society such as horseraces,
regattas, festivals of national holidays, and
his hometown’s famous beach scenes in
front of the Casino Marie-Christine. He
brought joy to the canvas through the
colours and techniques, as well as the
choice of subject. Activities of dancing and
sports stood as symbols of life itself and
were a central theme for the Fauvists, as is
clearly recognisable in some of the most
significant works of the time. 1906 was
a very important year for Raoul Dufy. He
exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants
as well as at the Salon d'Automne and he
held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie
Berthe Weill.
The large-scale painting "Baignade" is one
of the few works that have not been exhi-
bited in a museum from this important and
radically revolutionary period in art history.
It was acquired by the famous auctioneer
Alphonse Bellier circa 1960 and has hither-
to remained in his family.
CHF 400 000 / 500 000
(€ 357 140 / 446 430)