Raoul DUFY
1877–1953, France

Raoul Dufy biography:

Raoul Dufy was born in Le Havre in Normandy and first attended the arts school of his hometown before studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From there, Dufy transferred as a student to the studio of the French painter Léon Bonnat. Initially influenced by the Impressionists, a painting by Henri Matisse led him to Fauvism and his works became richer in color. Later he was also inspired by Braque's Cubism and the works by Cézanne. In 1906 Dufy had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Berthe Weill in Paris. In addition to his paintings and drawings, he designed fabric patterns for the fashion house Poiret and created ceramics, woodblock prints and designs for tapestries. From 1920, he undertook regular trips to the South of France. Here he painted numerous sailing regattas, horse races and landscapes in luminous colors. For the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 Dufy created the Pavillon de la lumière; in 1952 he received the main painting prize at the Biennale in Venice. Some of his works were exhibited posthumously at the documenta 1 (1955) and the documenta III in the year 1964 in Kassel.

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Raoul Dufy was a French Fauvist painter. 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, a theatrical set-dresser, a designer of furniture, and a planner of public spaces.
Raoul Dufy was born into a large family at Le Havre, in Normandy. He left school at the age of fourteen to work in a coffee-importing company. In 1895, when he was 18, he started taking evening classes in art at Le Havre's École d'Art (municipal art school). The classes were taught by Charles Lhuillier, who had been, forty years earlier, a student of the remarkable French portrait-painter, Ingres. There, Dufy met Raymond Lecourt and Othon Friesz with whom he later shared a studio in Montmartre and to whom he remained a lifelong friend. During this period, Dufy painted mostly Norman landscapes in watercolors.... From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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