Avant les Courses, Deauville. Before the Races at Deauville by Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953

Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953
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Avant les Courses, Deauville. Before the Races at Deauville

Original lithograph in nine colours. Drawn c.1935/38. Signed with the signature stamp that Dufy also used on many drawings (no impressions were ever pencil signed). Numbered in pencil from the edition of 75, plus 15 proofs. Drawn at the studio of Mourlot in 1935/38 and proofed at that date. The edition printed c.1949/50 but first offered for sale in the Centenary of the Mourlot Studio exhibition and album in 1953.

Absolutely brilliant impression with sparkling colours. On pale cream wove Arches paper. Excellent fresh original condition. Full margins. Sheet: 19 3/8 x 26ins. Image: 17 x 23 1/8ins (430x585mm).

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'Before the Races' is one of the only four major large scale colour lithographs that Dufy drew.

Drawing was always central to Dufy's art and from the earliest period he was interested in using printmaking to make images. Despite the fact that he was a brilliant colourist he concentrated his attention largely on work in black and white - on woodcuts during his Fauve period before the First War and then on monochrome lithography in the 1920's and 30's. However on a few occasions he extended his work in lithography to colour including just four large scale works - Les Voiliers, Vieux Port de Marseilles, La Grande Baigneuse and the extremely characteristic racing scene Avant les Courses, above. These four prints have become Dufy's most highly-prized graphic works.

Dufy was passionate about horse-racing and it was a theme which inspired some of his most appealing works. This lithograph is absolutely typical of the marvellous glowing colour and free lively drawing which characterise his racing subjects. It was drawn in brush and chalk on stone at the studio of Mourlot in the late 1930's. However apart from one or two proofs, one overworked in water-colour, no edition was printed before the War. In about 1948 he and Mourlot decided to print the edition but it was withheld from sale so that it could be included in the great Centenary Exhibition of the Mourlot Studio in 1953.

The marvellous glowing rich colours of this impression, totally fresh and unfaded (the impression had never previously been mounted or framed), show Dufy's lyrical colourism at its finest.