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Raoul Dufy’s “Fête Maritime et Visite Officielle au Havre” (c. 1925-26). © Adagp, Paris 2011. |
A nice complement to the show on the Caillebotte brothers at the Musée Jacquemart-André is an exhibition featuring another brother act: “Raoul et Jean Dufy, Complicité et …
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Raoul Dufy’s “Fête Maritime et Visite Officielle au Havre” (c. 1925-26). © Adagp, Paris 2011. |
A nice complement to the show on the Caillebotte brothers at the Musée Jacquemart-André is an exhibition featuring another brother act: “Raoul et Jean Dufy, Complicité et Rupture” at the Musée Marmottan Monet.
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) is much better known today than his younger brother, Jean (1888-1964), although Jean apparently received some attention from American museums in his lifetime. After going through Fauve and Cubist phases, Raoul settled on his own, highly recognizable style: bright, colorful paintings of people enjoying themselves in different situations.
The brothers were very close, and Jean was visibly influenced by Raoul. Both loved to paint seascapes and street scenes depicted through open windows à la Matisse (and the Caillebotte brothers, for that matter), joining the indoors and outdoors. Jean was a talented painter in his own right, however, and made a distinct effort to get out of his older brother’s shadow by cultivating certain stylistic differences.
The show presents their work by theme – the sea, open windows, cityscapes (Paris and Nice), the circus, music and equestrian scenes – placing paintings by each brother side by side. When they are seen this way, you quickly learn to distinguish Raoul’s style from Jean’s. Jean’s palette is earthier than that of his brother, who used pure, brilliant colors, and the younger brother’s
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Jean Dufy’s “Le Bassin de la Manche au Havre” (1925). © Adagp, Paris 2011 |
brushstrokes give his works a shimmery quality that Raoul’s don’t have (the city of Paris positively sparkles in Jean’s “Place de la Concorde,” 1950-52). Jean adhered more closely to traditional perspective, while Raoul tended to flatten the plane of the scenes in his pictures. These differences can be seen in the paintings pictured on this page.
The brothers’ close relationship ended in 1937 with a quarrel involving their only collaboration, the monumental mural “La Fée Electricité,” made for the Exposition Internationale’s Pavillon de l’Électricité (now the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, where the mural can still be seen). Raoul neglected to give any credit to his brother, who had given up his own work to do research for the project, and Jean never forgave him.
The paintings in this show offer no hint of the anguish that the break between the brothers must have caused; the pictures are consistently lively and cheerful, full of life and light, although Raoul’s works are more playful and have a more palpable sense of joie de vivre. Jean was no slouch in this department, however: witness his joyous “La Revue Nègre,” featuring Josephine Baker and dancers and musicians.
The brothers’ relationship may have ended in life, but, as this show amply demonstrates, they will always be united by their paintings – whether they like it or not.
Musée Marmottan Monet: 2, rue Louis-Boilly, 75016, Paris. Métro: La Muette. Tel.: 01 42 24 07 02. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm (until 8pm on Thursday). Admission: €10. Through June 26. www.marmottan.com
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© 2011 Paris Update