Au Bord de la Mer. Beside the Sea. by Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953

Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953
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Au Bord de la Mer. Beside the Sea.

Original lithograph in colours with stencil (or blockprint) additions. 1930. Signed in pencil. Numbered 1 from the edition of 25 only (plus two or three proofs). (The same image was subsequently issued with the addition of text lettering and unsigned as the cover for the album: 'Raoul Dufy' by M. Beer de Turique, Floury Paris 1930 in an edition of 200. Very rare in this first form without any lettering.
Note: We have only ever seen one other inpression of this lithograph in this form.

Superb impression with excellent colours. On pale cream wove Rives paper. Excellent condition with no rubbing on the colours. Sheet: 18 3/8 x 24 3/8ins. 468x620mm. Image: 14 3/8 x 20 1/8ins. 364x510mm.

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A very striking and extremely scarce mixed-media print by Dufy, with very strong and
characteristic colours. This is the only impression we have ever seen. We believe that it was a project for the cover of an album which was never realised, and as far as we have been able to ascertain there was never an edition. We think that it may have been the first of an intended further group of designs (hence the inscription ' 1'), but we can find no record or trace of any other versions. The image is worked in large part in stencil, with additions and added colours in lithography.

In the post First War years Dufy's art mellowed from the expressive intensity of his Fauve period into a marvellous and lyrical expression of the freedom and joy of life itself expressed through symbols such as the sea, sailing and the enjoyment of the open-air. This composition is typical of his work in this vein, one of the most admired aspects of his art.