1 / 3
Premium MILLON
82
-
Raoul DUFY (Le Havre 1877 - Forcalquier 1956)
The Casino in …
See original version (French)
82
-
Raoul DUFY (Le Havre 1877 - Forcalquier 1956)
The Casino in …
See original version (French)
Estimate €60,000 - €80,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Raoul DUFY (Le Havre 1877 - Forcalquier 1956)
The Casino in Nice with the Walkers
Original oil on canvas
38 x 45 cm
Signed Raoul Dufy lower centre
Bears the Galerie Romanet stamp on the back
Bears the Customs stamp
Old gallery labels on the stretcher: Pomeroy Galleries in San Francisco and Romanet Avenue Matignon Paris
Provenance
Pomeroy Gallery, San Francisco
Private collection, Paris
Galerie Romanet, Paris
Bibliography:
Maurice Laffaille Raoul Dufy Catalogue Raisonné des peintures, 1972-1977; tome 2; n° 449 reproduced page 36
This composition by Raoul Dufy is one of a series of luminous and vibrant views that the artist devoted to the Côte d'Azur, and more particularly to Nice, where he captured the mundane atmosphere and dazzling light with real acuity. Dominated by the recognisable silhouette of the Casino de la Jetée-Promenade, the work recreates an emblematic fragment of the Baie des Anges, a place of sociability and resort where the elegance of the Riviera is concentrated.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Dufy stayed regularly in Nice, a city to which he was linked both by his personal ties and by a deep fascination for the Mediterranean light. The almost unreal intensity of the light transformed his palette and liberated his gestures. The artist transposes onto canvas the variations of the sea and sky, whose blues come in a subtle range, while the architecture and figures stand out with nervous, assertive contours.
The Casino de Nice, at the centre of the composition, became much more than a simple architectural motif under his brush: it embodied a symbol of modernity and refinement. With its exotic form and its place at the heart of the promenade, it crystallised the imagination of a Côte d'Azur that was both festive and cosmopolitan. Dufy represented it many times, going so far as to recreate it from memory after his death in 1944, proof of the lasting imprint it left on his visual universe.
The construction of the space reveals a free and inventive approach to perspective. Conceived as a bird's-eye view, the scene juxtaposes a wide-open background, with sea and sky merging into a single chromatic vibration, and a foreground animated by elegant silhouettes. Walkers, carriages and sketched figures give rhythm to the composition, evoking the ceaseless flow of social life.
Raoul Dufy made bold use of colour and gave real importance to visual sensation. The artist favoured a subjective interpretation of the landscape, where topographical fidelity gave way to a sensitive transcription. The flat areas of colour, the simplified lines and the liveliness of the brushstrokes all contribute to a synthetic vision.
This work fully illustrates the way in which Dufy turned Nice into a veritable pictorial laboratory. Between observation and reinvention, he developed a visual language based on colour, rhythm and light, offering an image that was both modern and deeply evocative of the joie de vivre that characterised the Riviera between the wars.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like