Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)

Upon turning forty, Guy Pène du Bois decided to dedicate himself more fully to his art and in 1924 moved to Paris with his family. After initially struggling to develop his own pictorial vocabulary, he established a unique aesthetic mingling classical figurative subjects with distinctly modern narratives that brought him great acclaim. Plagued by periods of inactivity and in search of new inspiration, Pène du Bois moved his family to Nice in the fall of 1929. Despite the creation of a number of lively preliminary sketches of the town's beaches and cafés, the artist's portrayals of Nice and its inhabitants were limited to only three oil paintings, including the present work, due to his forced return to the United States in the spring of 1930.