Details

With a certificate with the number 4224 from Jacques Bailly, Paris, dated 3 June 2011 (copy). The painting will be included in volume III of the catalogue raisonné.

Provenance:

Collection Richard H. Zinser (1884-1984), Stuttgart/New York, since then in family ownership, USA.

Descrizione

– Interesting motif combination of studio view, still life and view of the city

– The Parisian sky is reflected in the painting in a variety of blue colour harmonies

– The painting comes from the collection of the German-American art dealer Richard H. Zinser (1884-1984) and is now being offered on the auction market for the first time

Jean Dufy grew up with ten siblings in Le Havre; his brother Raoul also became an artist. It was only after his commercial apprenticeship that he discovered his love of painting. The decisive key experience was a visit to an exhibition in his home town in 1906, where he saw works by Henri Matisse, André Derain, Albert Marquet and Pablo Picasso and ultimately decided to pursue a career as an artist. In 1912, Dufy moved to Paris and met Derain and Picasso in person, as well as Georges Braque and Guillaume Apollinaire. His first exhibition was a great success at the Berthe Weill Gallery in 1914, which spurred him on to draw tirelessly. Due to the precarious situation caused by the war, he worked together with his brother Raoul for the renowned textile atelier Bianchini-Férier in Lyon after 1916 and produced designs for the porcelain manufacturer Théodore Haviland in Limoges for over three decades. His “Châteaux de France” service was honoured with a gold medal at the “Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes” in 1925. For the Paris World Exhibition in 1937, Jean and Raoul Dufy painted the 600 square metre ceiling painting “La Fée Électricité” for the Pavilion of Electricity. Both his porcelain works and his paintings were shown at numerous exhibitions in Paris and New York and are now in the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.

After the Second World War, Dufy found new artistic inspiration while travelling through Europe and North Africa. His diverse oeuvre includes still lifes, nudes, portraits and landscapes as well as the well-known racecourse motifs, harbour views and regatta depictions. However, Dufy’s most frequent and successful subject remains undisputedly his beloved Paris: views of the magnificent squares and boulevards, carriages and riders in the parks as well as concert and circus performances. This also includes the repeated depictions of his own studio in the artists’ quarter of Montmartre. In our painting, he combines the interior view, including a still life, with a sweeping view of the characteristic Parisian rooftops. It is dominated by intense blue tones, which are so typical of Dufy’s painting and which reflect the magical, softly shimmering Parisian light through their application in short, parallel brushstrokes.

Old stretcher label on the reverse, handwritten numbered “105 C” and inscribed.