01 Marine Painting - With Footnotes, #236

Raoul Dufy, 1877 - 1953

LES VOILIERS À DEAUVILLE

Oil on canvas

25 3/4 by 31 7/8 in., 65.4 by 81 cm

Private collection

Les Voiliers à Deauville conveys a sense of stillness in the midst of a frenetic scene, in which the lines of opposing objects intersect and create a cohesive landscape where the sea is associated more with commerce than nature. The present work is a departure from more Fauve depictions of ships in Dufy’s early paintings. This later period is distinguished by the distribution of light and color. By this time, Dufy had developed personal artistic principles, “I was spontaneously led towards what was to become my real preoccupation. I had discovered a system, whose theory was this: to follow the light of the sun is a waste of time. Light in painting is something completely different: it is light distributed throughout the composition, More on Les Voiliers à Deauville

Deauville was conceived for fashionable pleasures. It emerged from the dunes in the 1860s, thanks to the vision of one Dr Joseph Olliffe and his close friend, Emperor Napoleon III’s half-brother, the Duc de Morny. At the end of the 1850s, marshes lay between the sea here and a little slope-side village above.

Dr Olliffe convinced wealthy backers to invest in a major scheme to drain the marshes and create a resort from nothing. The resort was designed by architect Desle-François Breney, inspired by Baron Haussmann’s redevelopment of Paris. Aided by an all-important, brand-new railway line, the resort came into full bloom within just four years. Grand hotels in the Anglo-Norman timber-frame style, smart bathing facilities and a stylish racecourse catered to elegant Parisians. More on Deauville

Raoul Dufy (3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French Fauvist painter, brother of Jean Dufy. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events. He was also a draftsman, printmaker, book illustrator, scenic designer, a designer of furniture, and a planner of public spaces. More on Raoul Dufy

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