Raoul Dufy

The Regatta (c. 1908-10)

Artwork description & Analysis: Dufy was born in Le Havre on France's channel coast, and throughout his career he depicted scenes of boating, beach-going, and other maritime leisure activities in his art. In The Regatta, we see a group of nattily dressed spectators (including men and women in straw hats and brown and white linen suits; a figure at right wears a purple bathing costume) lining the beach. The figures gaze towards a sea full of sailboats and sculls packed with rowers, as French flags flutter in the breeze. Dufy employed the broad brushstrokes, bold outlines, and vibrant and expressive colors of Fauvism, which he adopted after seeing Matisse's groundbreaking canvas, Luxe, Calme, et Volupté, exhibited at the 1905 Salon des Indépendantes. The Regatta thus demonstrates what Dufy came to see as the "new mechanism for art": not the faithful rendering of external, objective reality but rather the "miracle of imagination at play in line and color."

Oil on canvas, 54 x 65.2 cm - Brooklyn Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. William K. Jacobs, Jr., inv. 64.91

The Harvester (c. 1912)

Artwork description & Analysis: In addition to his paintings, watercolors, and prints, Dufy was famous for his original textile designs featuring whimsical repeating patterns and vivid colors. Many of these block-printed silks and cotton fabrics were used by such famous creators of haute couture, including the French Paul Poiret. Though certain of Dufy's designs made use of purely abstract patterns, in many instances the artist drew upon nature for his inspiration, with birds, animals, flowers and plant motifs forming the basis for his elegant designs.

In The Harvester, Dufy created a dynamic pattern based on the figure of a male harvester reaping wheat. His muscular body is nestled within the angular, abstracted forms of sheaves and shafts of wheat, while the overall dynamism and angularity of the forms marries Art Deco style with Cubist formal innovation. Dufy's textile designs had an enormous influence on popular art in the 20^th century, and his style was widely imitated by commercial designers.

Printed linen - Manufactured by Atuyer, Bianchini and Férier

Nice, the Old Casino (1927-28)

Artwork description & Analysis: Painted in his characteristic late "stenographic" style, Nice, the Old Casino displays Dufy's use of loose outlines to demarcate forms, which he filled in with thin washes of color. These works convey a breezy nonchalance that - when compared to the laborious, intellectual approach of Cézanne - has led critics to malign him as frivolous. But the beauty and cheerfulness of Dufy's art do not disqualify him as a modernist. In this canvas, Dufy manages to convey with masterful economy of means the essential feel of a specific place and time: a Jazz Age summer night on the Riviera. The glowing beacon of the casino, the crepuscular aquamarine sky tinged with peach, the crescent moon hovering above the Baie des Anges and the silhouetted figures of elegant promenaders combine in an image of unapologetic, sensuous pleasure. Dufy's calligraphic, free-flowing line and liberated use of vibrant color are the artist's hallmarks, and reinforce the paradisiacal sensibility so unique to his art.

Oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm - Switzerland, private collection

The Electricity Fairy (c. 1937-38)

Artwork description & Analysis: This enormous mural measuring 10 x 60 meters was commissioned by the Compagnie parisienne de distribution d'électricité to decorate the curving walls of the Pavilion de L'Electricite et de la Lumiere at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. Dufy's painting, one of the largest ever made by any artist, was inspired by the story of the Electric Fairy from the ancient Roman poet Lucretius's On the Nature of Things. The composition is divided into two main themes: the history of electricity, and its various modern applications. Dufy included portraits of 110 famous scientists and thinkers who contributed to the invention and development of electricity, as well as elements of mythology and allegory. The entire mural is rendered in the artist's characteristic style, with bright, clear colors (organized in opposing harmonies of cool and warm tones throughout) and rapidly drawn outlines. Dufy worked tirelessly in preparation for the final painting, producing countless studies, sketches, and watercolors, which were projected onto the wall of the pavilion by his assistants for him to reproduce in monumental scale. One of the most significant aspects of the work, aside from its enormous scale, is Dufy's use of a newly invented quick-drying paint that mimicked the translucent and vibrant effects of watercolor and allowed him to work extremely rapidly: the entire mural was completed in 10 months.

Oil on plywood - Musée de l'art moderne de la ville de Paris

The Bay of Marseille, Seen from L'Estaque (1885)

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Artwork description & Analysis: In this view of L'Estaque, the artist's palette bursts with a vibrant bouquet of colors previously unseen in his work. The rigid architectonic forms of the houses define the foreground, while the rest of the picture is realized just as "solidly" through the bold blues of the sea and the sky. The complementary colors are skillfully employed by the artist to create an illusion of pictorial depth. The entire composition reminds us the artist's stated desire to "make of Impressionism something solid and enduring, like the art in museums." Cézanne painted numerous views of L'Estaque, which was one of his favorite destinations in the south of France.

Oil on canvas - The Art Institute of Chicago

Luxe, Calme, et Volupte (1904-05)

Artist: Henri Matisse

Artwork description & Analysis: The title of this painting is taken from the refrain of Charles Baudelaire's poem, Invitation to a Voyage (1857), in which a man invites his lover to travel with him to paradise. The landscape is likely based on the view from Paul Signac's house in Saint-Tropez, where Matisse was vacationing. Most of the women are nude (in the manner of a traditional classical idyll), but one woman - thought to represent the painter's wife - wears contemporary dress. This is Matisse's only major painting in the Neo-Impressionist mode, and its technique was inspired by the Pointillism of Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. He differs from the approach of those painters, however, in the way in which he outlines figures to give them emphasis.

Oil on canvas - Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

État Cabinet (1922)

Movement: Art Deco

Artist: Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann

Artwork description & Analysis: Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann was born in Paris to a family that owned a decorating business, so it seemed only natural that his creativity would find expression in the luxurious home wares for which he became renowned. From furniture and light fixtures to a variety of other decorative elements such as wallpaper, Ruhlmann produced one-of-a-kind, elegant home furnishings using rare, exotic woods with ivory embellishments from Africa and the Far East, thereby incorporating the era's preoccupation with the art of previously considered "primitive" countries. Bridging the divide between the uniqueness of Art Nouveau pieces and the Art Deco impulse to incorporate unusual materials, his pieces demonstrates a blending of Art Deco and the more lavish and ornamental Art Nouveau style that preceded it.

This cabinet, which diverges from Art Nouveau in its symmetry and limited palette resulting from the use of the wood contrasting with the ivory, still features a somewhat elaborate floral design that borrows from Art Nouveau. It is less a departure from the older style than an updating and simplification of it.

Macassar ebony, amaranth, ivory, oak, lumber-core plywood, poplar, chestnut, mahogany, silvered brass - Metropolitan Museum of Art