Raoul Dufy (Le Havre, 1877-1953, Forcalquier) Enclosure... Lot 110

Raoul Dufy (Le Havre, 1877-1953, Forcalquier) Enclosure of the owners, c. 1930-1935 Oil on its original canvas. Signed Raoul Dufy lower left. Height: 37,5 cm Width: 46 cm. Provenance : collection of Mr. and Mrs. K., Touraine. A ca. 1930-1935 painting by Raoul Dufy depicting racehorse owners at a racetrack. Signed oil on canvas. This work will be included in the supplement to the "Catalogue Raisonné des Aquarelles, Gouaches et Pastels" currently being prepared by Madame Fanny Guillon-Laffaille. A certificate from Madame Fanny Guillon-Laffaille will be given to the buyer. THE RACES LIBERATE LIGHT AND COLOR From 1923-1925, Dufy was preoccupied with light and color, to the detriment of the structure and arrangement of forms. Poiret introduced him to horse racing. The racecourse becomes for him the ideal subject to put into practice his theory of the "light-color". The parasols, suits, dresses and other hats of the rich owners who came to admire their horses at the weigh-in offered the artist an ideal multicolored crowd. From Ascot in England to Longchamp and Deauville, Dufy noticed the same thing: when the light extended parallel to the ground, it only hit the object presented vertically on one side, leaving the other in shadow. Dufy then chooses to make the light come from both sides, because he considers that "each object has its center of light. He adds that he "models it towards its edges where it reaches the pure or reflected shadow before reaching the center the neighboring object." That's why we never find two pure colors in contact in any of the artist's work. As a demonstration of his theory of the "light-color", Dufy establishes a distinction between the local tone and the ambient tone. That is to say, between the particular color of an object and the tone bathing the whole. He notes in his notebooks: "The ambient color of a painting is determined by the color of the object that is the main reason for the painting. By spreading the local tone on the canvas, I neutralize the color of the object and this color no longer personifies this or that object, so for the other elements of the painting, I free myself from the constraint of imitation and the field becomes free for the imagination of the color. In this painting, which is a real little gem, Dufy chooses precisely the electrifying moment of the pre-race, when the crowds intermingle the most, and when shadows and colors overlap.