Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Of Raoul Dufy, Gertrude Stein famously wrote: "one must meditate about pleasure. Raoul Dufy is pleasure. To know to know to love her so. You have to really love what is to have pleasure and Dufy does really love what is and we have the pleasure." Dufy's oeuvre is justly celebrated for colorful, picturesque, playful views of city streets, beaches, horse races, ports and studios. In Hyères, la fontaine, the lush fountain pool invites the viewer to be surrounded by the palm trees and tall-shuttered windows typical of southern French villages. The idyllic tranquility of the scene is finely realized in the artist's distinctive palette of deep blues, rich greens and bright reds. Perhaps in the early morning before the bustle of daily traffic, Dufy here offers an elegant corner of Hyères to "meditate about pleasure."

The present painting's third recorded owner was celebrated American modernist Florine Stettheimer, whose beloved, eponymous Stettheimer Dollhouse resides in the Museum of the City of New York.