Raoul Dufy

Mrs. Käete Perls (acquired from the artist in 1937)
Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills (acquired from the above)
Janes Vigeveno Gallery, Los Angeles
The Estate of Caroline Eshman Liebig (acquired from the above in 1945 and sold: Christie's, New York, November 9, 1994, lot 25)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Between 1905 and 1908 Dufy painted several still-lifes with flowers, which reflect the artist’s interest in combining decorative subject-matter with artistic experimentation and innovation that placed him alongside the leading avant-garde painters of the early 20^th century. Having executed a number of Fauve canvases, particularly seascapes, in 1907 Dufy’s focus started turning away from this style, to gradually adopt the prevailing Cubism. Fleurs dans un vase witnesses this important transition in Dufy’s œuvre, displaying increasingly simplified forms verging on abstraction, while at the same time maintaining the vibrant palette of his earlier work. In the first decade of the century, Dufy rarely chose to depict flowers as an isolated subject, preferring to present them as a part of an interior or a landscape or garden scene. In the present work, the vase of flowers seems to be floating against an oval green background resembling a table top, which, combined with stylized trees behind it transforms into a patch of grass of an en plein air composition.

In using bright green, red and yellow tones, Dufy follows his theory of couleur-lumière, observing the painting’s own internal principles of color and light, rather than copying nature. In fact, unlike his fellow Fauves who adopted a quieter palette after seeing Cézanne’s work at the 1907 Salon d’Automne, Dufy’s fascination with bright, primary colors never abandoned him. From this period on, he developed his own Cézanne-inspired brand of Cubism that came to be known as ‘Para-Cubism’, characterized by flattened and increasingly geometrical forms. Although Dufy had probably not yet seen Cézanne’s art by the time he painted the present work, the juxtaposition of warm and cool tones applied in broad brushstrokes and the reduction of elements to nearly-abstract color patches present in Fleurs dans un vase show some affinities with Cézanne’s own artistic experimentations. The present work thus heralds an important transition not only in Dufy’s own painting, but also in the work of his fellow Fauve artists including Vlaminck and Derain.