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Impressionist & Modern Art
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3209* RAOUL DUFY(Le Havre 1877 - 1953 Forcalquier)
Le bal populaire. 1906.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: Raoul Dufy.
34 x 42 cm.
Provenance:
- Collection Gustave Coquiot, Paris.
- Galerie Charpentier, Paris December
1959.
- Private collection, Switzerland.
Exhibition: Milan 1969, Galleria del Milione,
no. 4 (with ill.).
Literature: Lafaille, Maurice: Raoul Dufy.
Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre peint de
1895 à 1915, 1972, vol. I, no. 244 (with ill.).
Raoul Dufy's fauvistic work Le bal populaire
is a feast of colour and form expressed
in a language which was new at the time
and this fine painting is therefore very
significant. It shows, both in its subject and
its technique, the decisive moment in the
history of art in which the pioneer Raoul
Dufy found himself.
The works of the Fauves exhibited in
the 1905 Salon d’Automne had greatly
impressed the young painter. After his
training at the École des Beaux-Arts du
Havre he began to explore new, non-aca-
demic ways of artistic expression. He was
introduced to the fauvist style of painting,
particularly by this friend Albert Marquet.
Both spent the summer of 1906 in Le
Havre, Trouville and Honfleur.
In Le Havre they celebrated the French
National Day, 14 July. Each started a small
series of paintings on this theme, which
was very well suited to the fauvist langua-
ge of form and colour. The famous “Rue
pavoisée” paintings depict the day’s festi-
vities in Le Havre. These works thus form
the high point of Dufy’s examination of this
important, expressionistic art movement.
We see couples dancing in a public garden.
The trees of the park coil wildly towards
the sky and the national flags clatter. Be-
hind the branches are hints of the variously
coloured contours of the musicians in a
medium-sized orchestra, and in the fore-
ground we see a person drinking wine at a
table, observing the dancers.
We see many other artistically impor-
tant influences, which will intensify even
further in the coming years and will cause
Dufy to finally move away from Fauvism.
We recognise the flow and composition
of Cézanne. There are also elements,
which will shortly emerge from this artistic
discourse and lead from 1907 to Cubism.
Particular segments of the picture con-
sciously subvert the academic perspec-
tive. So for example the table, the seated
figure, and the dancers are to be seen
from independent perspectives. This lends
the whole picture a pulsating effect, while
the composition is not without harmony,
this also being a characteristic of the much
celebrated works of Cezanne from the
same years.
The entire setting mirrors the dance, the
music and the diversity of colour, and
so conveys the festivity and joy of that
moment. It is symbolic of the joy which the
young painter must have felt, to be able to
express himself in this new style.
CHF 330 000 / 380 000
(€ 305 560 / 351 850)