Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Gertrude Stein famously wrote of Raoul Dufy: "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 La place d'Hyères l'obélisque et le kiosque à musique, the open square invites the viewer to be surrounded by the palm trees, tall-shuttered windows and white washed buildings typical of southern French villages. The idyllic tranquility of the scene is finely realized in the artist's distinctive palette of deep blues, peaches and bright reds. Perhaps in the early morning before the hustle and bustle of daily traffic, Dufy here offers an elegant corner of Hyères to "meditate about pleasure."