Le Vieux Port de Marseille - Fête Nautique. The Old Port at Marseilles -Regatta by Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953

Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953
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Le Vieux Port de Marseille - Fête Nautique. The Old Port at Marseilles -Regatta

Original lithograph in five colours (red, yellow, green, purple and brown). 1925. Signed in full in pencil. Inscribed by Dufy: essai sur chine vol (proof on China paper). One of three of four proofs with full colours before the edition of 33 impressions. Issued in the series: La Mer, Éditions de l?Étoile, Paris, 1925. Very rare.
Provenance: Collection Baron Petiet.

Superb impression with perfect fresh unfaded colours. On off-white light chine volant paper. Generally excellent condition; one or two very minor paper weaknesses as is typical of this paper; a 1? tear repaired in the top margin edge (2½? clear of image). Full margins. Sheet: 19¼?x25½?. Image: 13 1/8?x17¼? (334x438mm).

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An outstandingly fine example of the lyrical colourism of Dufy?s art in the mid-1920?s. Le Vieux Port de Marseille is one of the three key lithographs in colour which Dufy drew in c.1925, and one of only some six lithographs in colour in his whole print oeuvre. Together with ?Regatta? it was issued in what is perhaps his single most important group of lithographs, the series La Mer. Like the other works in this series the edition was extremely small, just 33 impression plus three of four proofs. This example is exceptionally fine, with the colours very bright and unfaded.

As for many artists of his generation the trauma of the First War occasioned a major change in Dufy?s style. The strong emotional force of his Fauve work in the 1910?s changed to a much more relaxed and poetic approach as the tragedies of war gave way to the peace of the 1920?s. Dufy came to see the purpose of his art as being a celebration of the enjoyment of life itself. The sea became one of his most important themes; for him it was a source of light and colour, and a symbol of the continuity, the perpetuity of life even when faced with the most horrendous and destructive forces of mankind.