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Painted in 1946.

signed Raoul Dufy (lower left)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Galerie Louis Carré, Paris
Jacques Neubauer, Paris
Sale: Briest, Paris, 22nd June 1999, lot 56
EXHIBITED

Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Raoul Dufy, 1952, no. 13, illustrated in the catalogue
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Geneva, 1977, vol. IV, no. 1459, illustrated in colour p. 57
CATALOGUE NOTE

The subjects of music and orchestras formed a significant part of Raoul Dufy's oeuvre. He was fascinated by the challenge of depicting the invisible sense of sound and its subsequent emotional charge. Dufy's method of reflecting music-derived delight was to fill his works with pure, bright pigment and a spontaneous brushstroke. Indeed, Dufy's great friend Pablo Casals thought so highly of the artist's paintings that he once told him 'I cannot tell what piece your orchestra is playing, but I know which key it is written in' (D. Perez-Tibi, Dufy, New York, 1989, p. 292).

In the present piece Dufy paints from above the players, obtaining an unusual view typical of his style. The large backdrop of elaborate seating to the right and the blue background to the left compose the picture beautifully, evoking Degas' compositions showing the theatres in Paris during the the late 1800s.