Raoul Dufy Biography
DUFY, Raoul (1877-1953)

Birth:  6 / 3 / 1877   -   Le Havre, France
Died:  3 / 23 / 1953   -  Forcalquier, France
Sex: M
Nationality / Affiliation:  France

1905    After meeting MATISSE, Henri (1869-1954) he abandoned his early impressionist style and turned c.1905 to the more spontaneous expression of fauvism.  

Born in LeHavre, Dufy began his studies there, taking night classes at L'cole des Beaux Arts. In 1900, after being awarded a scholarship to pursue his artistic ambitions, the artist moved to Paris and enrolled at the cole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts.
While the Impressionist-dominated Parisian art scene had a profound impact on Dufy's early landscapes, the artist attended an exhibition of the Salon des Independants of 1905 and was struck by the dazzling colors of Matisse and the Fauvist group. This encounter radically changed the artist's approach to painting. Dufy immediately began to incorporate the lively brush strokes and brilliant color of Fauvism into his work.
After settling on the French Riviera in 1917, he began painting again using Chinese calligraphy as inspirations for his large paintings infused with black lines.
In the post First War years Dufy's art mellowed from the expressive intensity of his Fauve period into a marvellous and lyrical expression of the freedom and joy of life itself expressed through symbols such as the sea, sailing and the enjoyment of the open-air.
In 1938, Dufy’s completed one of the largest paintings ever done, a mural for the Exposition Universelle in Paris.