Nu Couché aux Palmiers - Fond de la Cote d'Azur. Reclining Nude with Palm Trees - South of France Background. by Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953

Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953
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Nu Couché aux Palmiers - Fond de la Cote d'Azur. Reclining Nude with Palm Trees - South of France Background.

Original etching in black ink. c.1930. Proof for a rare unpublished etching. No impressions from the edition were pencil signed. Proposed edition of c.100 impressions, only 50 proofs printed. Commissioned by Ambroise Vollard in c.1930 for inclusion in his unpublished 'Album de Nus'. Edition never issued.
Ref: Johnson - Ambroise Vollard Publisher no 37. Bibliothèque Nationale Inventory no 51

Extremely fine strong impression. On pale cream wove Van gelder paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 17 7/8 x 22 7/8. Plate: 13 3/8 x 19 3/8ins (340 x 493mm)

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'Nu Couché aux Palmiers' was drawn at the same period as 'Nu Devant une Balustrade' opposite. It was commissioned from Dufy by Ambroise Vollard, probably with the intention of including it in a series with the title of 'Album des Nus', - studies of the nude by a wide variety of artist's including Matisse - , on which he was working at the end of the 1920's. In fact that album was never completed, and although a number of proofs (perhaps 50) of 'Nu Couché aux Palmiers' were printed no formal edition was made. The proofs are all unsigned and without annotation, as here. Impressions are now rarely to be found.

'Nu Couché au Palmiers' is another outstanding example of Dufy's use of large-scale etching as a medium. Using a similar Mediterranean seaside theme as the work opposite, and like it probably inspired by sketches made on the sea front at Nice, it combines a marvellous sparkle of light with that special quality of pattern-making and movement which is so much a hallmark of Dufy's drawing.