Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy was born on June 3rd 1877 in Le Havre, France. In 1895 he attended evening classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre studying under Charles L’Huillier. In 1900, Dufy received a scholarship to study at the École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Whilst heavily influenced by Impressionism he also drew inspiration from Henri Matisse and adopted the bright colours and expressive mark-making of Fauvism.

Dufy is best known for his distinctive decorative style. Designing textiles for fashion designer Paul Poiret and the silk manufacturer Bianchini-Férier, experiences that had a lasting influence on his use of colour and line. During this period he also began printmaking, producing woodcuts to illustrate Guillaume Apollinaire's Le Bestiaire, 1911. 

His prints, with their characterful calligraphic lines and bright, transparent colour, explore many of the same subjects as his paintings, including regattas, horse racing, musical performances and the landscapes of southern France.

In 1937 Dufy completed La Fée Électricité for the International Exposition in Paris, one of the largest mural paintings ever created. Despite suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in later life, he continued to paint and produce prints, travelling to the United States for treatment in 1950 before returning to France. Raoul Dufy died at Forcalquier in 1953. 

His work has been the subject of major retrospectives internationally, and his prints remain among the finest examples of twentieth-century French lithography and book illustration.