Un dimanche à Deauville, 1931
Oil on canvas
Private collection.
Un dimanche à Deauville depicts one of Raoul Dufy’s favourite subjects during the 1930s: the joyful and dynamic atmosphere of seascapes and regattas. He produced numerous depictions of boats racing across the tumbling waves, their sails unfurled, or of boats sailing into the harbours of Le Havre or Deauville. While his contemporaries reflected the anxiety of the rise of Nazism in Europe through more tortured works, Raoul Dufy stands out with his depictions of the beauties of his country and especially of Normandy where he was born. In the present painting, the artist shows the passtimes of the French upper classes, enjoying walks in lively harbours, boating festivals and the permanent distraction of leisure boats. In this masterful composition, the artist opposes the vertical masts, the solid colours of the rowing boats and the dancing curves of a cloudy sky, guiding the viewer’s eye to small scenes and details. The impression of high-spiritedness is reinforced by the wide format of the canvas, which gives a panoramic view of the small harbour. The sketched houses and rowing boats circle the building of the Trouville Casino and Spa, which embodies the pleasures of the Normandy coast. With small dynamic and cheerful brushstrokes, the artist’s gestural movement is also found in his celebrated vibrant waves and black contours. In Un dimanche à Deauville the artist uses a luminous palette with coloured confetti and a strong sense of Prussian blue – a characteristic choice of the artist. Although commonplace in a seascape, Dufy gives a deeper explanation for his preference for this colour, in an interview with Pierre Courthion in 1951: “Blue is the only colour which keeps its own individuality across the spectrum. Take blue with its different nuances, from the darkest to the lightest; it will always be blue, whereas yellow darkens in shadow and fades out in lighter parts, dark red becomes brown and when diluted with white, it isn’t red any more, but another colour: pink” (cited in P. Courthion, Raoul Dufy, Genève, 1951, p.52). One can see in this preference for blue, also a symbol of France, the deep attachment to his country of a painter who decorated windows in French streets with large flags during his Fauve period, and who adorns this work with a small French tricolour.
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