RAOUL DUFY (1877-1953)

Trois personnages prenant le thé dans l'atelier de Perpignan depicts the first of two studios that Dufy occupied in Perpignan in the South of France during the 1940s, representing the recurrent theme of the studio in Dufy's paintings, appearing at regular intervals and marking through time and place the various stages in the development of his oeuvre. Dufy’s clever device of inserting his own paintings into the atelier compositions is here evident, as we see a study for the artist’s favoured subject of the Baigneuse, and painting featuring a violin, referencing his love of music.

Widely known as “the magician of colors,” Dufy favoured vibrant tones and delicate brushwork to depict leisure activities, spectacles and events. The bright, saturated colour here creates a sense of luminosity, filling the scene with light, and evoking the sense of serenity. For Dufy, light and colour were the central components of painting; he described, ‘The colour captures the light that forms and animates the group as a whole. Every object or group of objects is placed within its own area of light and shade, receiving its share of reflections and being subjected to the arrangement decided by the artist’ (D. Perez-Tibi, Dufy, London, 1989, p. 150).

Startling in composition as well as in palette, Trois personnages prenant le thé dans l'atelier de Perpignan, presents a wonderful balance of fresh colours injected by lines of speed and precision, imbuing the painting with the beauty and joie de vivre characteristic of the artist's finest work.