Raoul Dufy

RAOUL DUFY

(Le Havre 1877-Forcalquier 1953)

Tragedie, or Actors of the French Comedy, Thinking of Dorival. 1926

41 x 50.08 cm

Signed on the lower right “Raoul Dufy”, then signed and dedicated on the left “Thinking of Dorival”

Gouache on paper around 1926.

Origin: Dorival collection then by descent.

Bibliography: Maurice Laffaille and Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, RAOUL DUFY Catalogue Raisoné of painted works, vol. II, (ed) 1981-1982, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, p.218, cat. 218, cat. 218, cat.

Our work was delivered to its recipient at Place Colette, at the Comedie Francaise. She joined the dressing room of Georges Dorival, a great actor and also a Collector. Among the artists the loved actors (Modigliani, Renoir, Picasso, Picasso, Renoir, Picasso, Picasso, Picasso, Lautrec, Gen Paul, Gen Paul, Utrillo, Utrillo, Max Jacob and others), Dufy took a particular place. Like a theater decorator, he suggests more than he describes. Perhaps it is this art of suggestion that will bring him closer to Dorival, support from the beginning, for years.

The latter introduces him to collectors and sponsors, but also helps him create his most iconic work: The Electricity Fairy. To do this, he provides him with costumed models from the various desired eras.

No work better than this one embodies the proximity of these two men around the theater. Produced around 1926, in the early days of their friendship, it was still alive in Dufy's mind when he created a poster for the Comédie-Française some twenty years later, and that in the wake of Dorival's disappearance.

The particular status of this work undoubtedly explains why it has been preserved to this day by his descendants.

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