1930, Raoul Dufy, Landscape, Villerville (Normandy) -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: Outdoor scenes of leisure activity on the coasts of France and regions of the Mediterranean were a constant theme throughout Dufy's career. No human figures are visible in this landscape, yet the garden furniture, livestock, and sailboats all suggest the sorts of pastimes on offer in the resort town of Villerville in Normandy, situated across the river from Dufy's hometown of La Havre. Although he experimented with several avant-garde tendencies throughout his career as a painter, Dufy remained deeply influenced by the idyllic landscapes created by neoclassical painters like Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), and his own maritime scenes reflect his aspiration to transform the genre according to his own unique style. The colors in the composition give definition to the suggestive accumulation of patterns used to represent the foliage, fruits, flowers, and grass as well as the regions of seascape and sky. Despite their apparent relation to their respective motifs, the loose figuration and quick, repetitive gestures used to apply washes of blue and green defy principles of naturalistic perspective while foregrounding Dufy's ongoing experimentation with bold tonal contrasts.
1930, Raoul Dufy, Landscape, Villerville (Normandy) -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: Outdoor scenes of leisure activity on the coasts of France and regions of the Mediterranean were a constant theme throughout Dufy's career. No human figures are visible in this landscape, yet the garden furniture, livestock, and sailboats all suggest the sorts of pastimes on offer in the resort town of Villerville in Normandy, situated across the river from Dufy's hometown of La Havre. Although he experimented with several avant-garde tendencies throughout his career as a painter, Dufy remained deeply influenced by the idyllic landscapes created by neoclassical painters like Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), and his own maritime scenes reflect his aspiration to transform the genre according to his own unique style. The colors in the composition give definition to the suggestive accumulation of patterns used to represent the foliage, fruits, flowers, and grass as well as the regions of seascape and sky. Despite their apparent relation to their respective motifs, the loose figuration and quick, repetitive gestures used to apply washes of blue and green defy principles of naturalistic perspective while foregrounding Dufy's ongoing experimentation with bold tonal contrasts.