Jean Dufy

Jean Dufy’s colorful Post-Impressionist paintings portray a vivacious early 20th-century world of jazz music, summer regattas, and bustling artist quarters. Introduced by his older brother Raoul Dufy to leading figures in the Parisian art world including Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and André Derain, Jean Dufy held his first exhibition in 1914. After the end of the First World War, Dufy applied his talents to porcelain, creating floral and animal designs for china manufacturer Théodore Haviland for over 30 years, work for which he was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs. Inspired by life in Montmartre between the wars, Dufy created his iconic depictions of musicians and orchestras such as Musical Fantasia (1927). Also known for his later Parisian landscapes including L’Il de la Cité (ca.1953-55), which sold for £77, 500 at auction in 2021, Dufy’s native Normandy provided backdrops for his depictions of the sea and ports in some of his finest works, as seen in La Quai Videcoq au Havre (ca. 1938-40).