(after) Raoul Dufy, Raoul Dufy School Prints Colorful Modernist Drawing Lithograph Marching Band, c.1949

Bright vibrant blue, yellow lithograph in color. This is signed in the plate and dated. Dufy’s abstract drawing lithograph was drawn by the artist direct on to plastic plates newly developed by Cowell’s of Ipswich, and proofed under his supervision. The original edition called for 3000. I do not know how many were actually printed.

The sheer logistics of the operation, the costly effort of distribution to over 4000 schools, finally ended the great adventure of the School Prints scheme. The expensive endeavor peaked in 1949 with the magnificent European series, made possible by the plastic portable plates, which, in addition to Moore, featured Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque.

Raoul Dufy (French 1877 – 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. In 1895, when he was 18, he started taking evening classes in art at Le Havre’s École des Beaux-Arts (municipal art school). The classes were taught by Charles Lhuillier, who had been, forty years earlier, a student of the 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. In 1900, after a year of military service, Dufy won a scholarship to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where again he crossed paths with Othon Friesz. (He was there when Georges Braque also was studying.) He concentrated on improving his drawing skills. The impressionist landscape painters, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, influenced Dufy profoundly. His first exhibition (at the Exhibition of French Artists) took place in 1901. Introduced to Berthe Weill in 1902, Dufy showed his work in her gallery. Then he exhibited again in 1903 at the Salon des Indépendants. A boost to his confidence: the painter, Maurice Denis, bought one of his paintings. Dufy continued to paint, often in the vicinity of Le Havre, and, in particular, on the beach at Sainte-Adresse, made famous by Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet. In 1904, with his friend, Albert Marquet, he worked in Fecamp on the English Channel (La Manche).
Henri Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupté, which Dufy saw at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, was a revelation to the young artist, and it directed his interests towards Fauvism. Les Fauves (the wild beasts) emphasized bright color and bold contours in their work. Dufy’s painting reflected this aesthetic until about 1909, when contact with the work of Paul Cézanne led him to adopt a somewhat subtler technique. It was not until 1920, however, after he had flirted briefly with yet another style, cubism, that Dufy developed his own distinctive approach. It involved skeletal structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that came to be known as stenographic. Dufy’s cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the time period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the French Riviera, chic parties, and musical events. The optimistic, fashionably decorative, and illustrative nature of much of his work has meant that his output has been less highly valued critically than the works of artists who have addressed a wider range of social concerns.
Dufy completed one of the largest paintings ever contemplated, a huge and immensely popular ode to electricity, the fresco La Fée Electricité for the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris.
Dufy also acquired a reputation as an illustrator and as a commercial artist. He painted murals for public buildings; he also produced a huge number of tapestries and ceramic designs. His plates appear in books by Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, and André Gide.
In 1909, Raoul Dufy was commissioned by Paul Poiret to design stationery for the house, and after 1912 designed textile patterns for Bianchini-Ferier used in Poiret’s and Charvet’s garments.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dufy exhibited at the annual Salon des Tuileries in Paris. In 1952 he received the grand prize for painting in the 26th Venice Biennale.

Among the public collections holding works by Raoul Dufy are:
Van Abbemuseum
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands
McNay Art Museum
Art Gallery of Ontario
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Illustrations
Jean Cocteau, Bertrand Guégan (1892-1943); L’almanach de Cocagne pour l’an 1920-1922, Dédié aux vrais Gourmands Et aux Francs Buveurs