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Date: 1877-1953

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Description: Executed in 1935.

signed Raoul Dufy, inscribed Ascot and dated 1935 (lower left)

watercolour and gouache on paper

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Dimensions: 50.5 by 60.3cm., 19 7/8 by 23 5/8 in.

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Provenance: PROPERY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

Henry Wilson
Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London (acquired from the above in 1953)
Louis Franck (acquired from the above in January 1954)
A gift from the above to the present owner

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Published: Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Raoul Dufy. Catalogue raisonné des aquarelles, gouaches et pastels, Paris, 1981, vol. I, no. 975, illustrated p. 356

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Notes: Dufy painted a Paddock as early as 1913 but it was not until the 1920s that the pageantry of the race-course became one of his favourite themes. The colourful dress, shaded stadiums, and broad expanses of lawn at the racecourses of Europe provided Dufy with ample opprtunities to develop his colour theory. As Dora Perez-Tibi has explained, 'These race-course scenes - whether in France, at Deauville, Longchamp or Chantilly or, in England, at Epsom, Ascot or Goodwood - allowed Dufy to put his colour-lumière theory into practice. When the light ran parallel to the earth he observed that it struck the vertically represented object from one side only, while the other side remained in shadow. He decided to convey light by means of colour; the absence of colour characterises the unlit area... For Dufy, the balance of the composition comes from the distribution of all points of light in the centre of each element of the painting. It was here that he found the secret of his composition' (see D. Perez-Tibi, Dufy, New York, 1989, pp. 158-162).