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3206 JEAN DUFY(Le Havre 1888 - 1964 Boussay)
Fleurs et fruits. Circa 1948/49.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower left: Jean Dufy.
38 x 46 cm.
The authenticity of the work has been
confirmed by Jacques Bailly, Paris, 6 Sep-
tember 2016.
Provenance: Private collection, Switzer-
land.
Exhibition: Cologne 1958, Jean Dufy.
Gemälde Galerie Abels, 1 October - 30
November, no. 9 (with ill.).
Jean Dufy’s early painting is dominated
by colour harmonies in muted brown, blue
and red tones. After his move to Paris
around 1920, his style underwent a rapid
change. His acquaintances in Paris with
Derain, Braque and Picasso, as well as his
encounter with Fauvism, influenced his
painting decisively. His real teacher, howe-
ver, was his elder brother Raoul.
Jean developed a pictorial language which
is characterised by bright and carefree
colours and an opening up of the pictorial
space. He succeeded in combining various
characteristics of Impressionism, Cubism
and Fauvism, and in developing his own
style from that. His works, and in particu-
lar his still lifes, are characterised initially
by shimmering surfaces composed of
juxtaposed colour squares and bold light
compositions. Here we see the influence
of his brother. In the course of his career,
he gradually broke up this systematic
treatment of space in terms of colour
squares, and developed an independent
pictorial language.
The present still life is dominated by a
gentle harmony of pastel-like tones, which
are cut through with bright accents of red.
The still life elements are set apart from
the background simply by means of loose
contouring, and reveal a spatial quality
which is part of Jean Dufy’s unmistakable
pictorial language.
CHF 20 000 / 40 000
(€ 18 520 / 37 040)