Born into a poor family, he was forced to enter commerce very young. He took evening classes at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Le Havre. After military service he went to Paris to study under Bonnard; he exhibited at the Independant in 1903. Although attracted at first by the Impressionists and by ToulouseLautrec, it was one of Matisse's paintings which came as the revelation which led
him to Fauvism. Significant among his paintings of this period are Bedecked Street (1906), Jeanne among the Flowers (c. 1907), The Lady in Pink (c. 1909) and The Aperitif (1908). Like Marquet he preferred vividly coloured subjects (flowers,
flags, posters); in this he differed from Vlaminck and Derain. He worked with Marquet and Friesz in Normandy, and adopted more violent colouring and freer composition. During a visit to La Ciotat with Braque in 1908, Dufy radically altered his manner. This period of pre Cubist activity was short-lived, and although remaining temporarily faithful to austere stylisation, he never identified with Cubism. During the winter of 1908- 1909 he went to Munich with Friesz. He executed wood engravings, dye-printed for Paul Poiret the couturier, and designed for Bianchini. After the war he devoted his energies to lithography. He began to adopt a more subtle style in 1922. He underwent treatment in the United States for partial paralysis of his hand, and was able to resume painting. He carried out large-scale decoration in the Palais de l'electricite at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1937, and in the bar of the Palais de Chaillot. After much travelling (Sicily, Morocco, the United States) he settled in Perpignan in 1940. In 1952 he won the Venice Biennale Grand Prix for painting. His favourite subjects- seascapes, and beach scenes-alternated with studies in the nude. His paintings are full of rhythm, colour, charm and joyous energy. His engraved work is substantial. His major works are The Flags (1906), The Beach (1906), The Chestnut Trees (1926), The Painter and his model (1929), Nude (1929), Deauville Docks (1931), The Regattas (1936), The Cowes Yachting Club (1936), etc.

Post-Impressionism, Michel-Claude Jalard, Edito Service SA, Geneva