Raoul Dufy

Germaine Dufy, France (by descent from the artist)
Gérard Oury, Paris (by descent from the above)
Wildenstein Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1973

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Aspects of Twentieth Century Art, 1978, no. 45

Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Geneva, 1977, vol. IV, no. 1802, illustrated p. 308 (with incorrect measurements)

The canvas is lined. There are some small spots of retouching across the paint surface, visible under ultra-violet light. These retouchings appear to be covering small paint losses. This work is in good, stable condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although fresher in the original, particularly in the yellow tones.
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Dufy's Le Casino is a prime example of the artist's Fauve manner, as well as a celebration of the activities of the leisure class. Painted one year after the infamous debut of the Fauves at the Salon d'Automne, the present work demonstrates the feverish colouration and energy that characterise the best landscapes of this period. But Le Casino was more than just a product of this new trend in painting. Dufy was a great admirer of Impressionist landscape painting, and this work shows an allegiance to Impressionism in the immediacy of execution practiced by its protagonists. Both styles of painting played a significant role in Dufy's work of this period, and he combined them in such a way that resulted in compositions which set him apart from his contemporaries. 

As Alvin Martin and Judi Freeman wrote: 'What distinguished the work of the Fauves from Le Havre (Dufy, Friesz and Braque) from that of Matisse and company was the treatment of surface and color. Whereas the Norman artists have been steadfastly loyal to the Impressionist approach to painting, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and the others borrowed extensively from the far more audacious generation that succeeded the Impressionists. The Norman Fauves found irresistible the full-blown Fauve manner of painting, characterized by highly saturated color and the laying in of brilliant tones side by side, and they inevitably responded to it in their own work, produced back in their native Normandy' (A. Martin & J. Freeman, 'The Distant Cousins in Normandy: Braque, Dufy and Friesz', in The Fauve Landscape, New York, 1990, pp. 221-22).