Raoul Dufy is honored in Aix en Provence through an exhibition of more than 90 works.

Dufy’s link with Provence

This is one of the key exhibitions of this summer: Raoul Dufy, the intoxication of color explores the works of the French painter and his link with Provence. Through hundreds of paintings, the Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence offers until September 18, 2022 an unprecedented journey between the blue of the sea and the ocher of the earth.

Influenced by impressionnists

Norman, originally from Le Havre, Raoul Dufy was first influenced by the impressionists Monet and Boudin, before following the example of Matisse and his friends whom he accompanied in the Fauve adventure. Like them, he uses a palette of bright colors and a very free design. It was in 1908, during a sort of initiatory trip to the south of France in the company of Georges Braque, that Dufy surveyed the Cezanne lands. While Braque adhered to Cubism a year later, Dufy would continue to explore Cezanne’s work until 1914, experiencing his lesson under the Norman light. The blue of the sea and the sky remains at the heart of an incessant research around the painter’s favorite motifs: bathers, nautical festivals, coastal landscapes, boats.

The rare delicacy of his drawings

You can also admire the illustrations that Dufy produced for the novels and collections of poems by famous writers of his time, such as Pour un herbare by Colette, Terrestrial foods by André Gide, Le Bestiaire by Guillaume Apollinaire or Forced holidays by Roland Dorgeles. Complementary to his activity as a painter, you will appreciate through these illustrations the rare delicacy of his drawings and his great talent as a colorist. The opportunity to discover until September 18, 2022 the Provençal palette of the Norman painter.

HÔTEL DE CAUMONTAIX-EN-PROVENCE

3 Rue Joseph Cabassol
13100 Aix-en-Provence