Raul Dufy (1877-1953)
The Yellow Console with a Violin

Raoul Dufy
Yellow Console (1949)
Canvas, oil paint 100.3x81.2 cm
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 　

Painting size: 50.15x40.5 cm
Work code: DufYel

Raoul Dufy was born into a musical family. His father was a church conductor and organist while working as an accountant, and his mother also played the violin, so he grew up in a music-loving family, which instilled his sensibilities.

Dufy's two younger brothers were also professional musicians, and one of them, Gaston, was a flautist and music critic, so Dufy was invited to many concerts and had the opportunity to interact with musicians, creating many masterpieces of musical series. I drew it. All of Dufy's works display elegant musical elements. During World War II, Dufy began painting monochromatic or brightly colored works. Many of his subjects are painters' studios and homes, and the world of music.

``Yellow Console'' is based on a style that is based on a single color that is typical of each of Dufy's later works, and this work is painted in a wash of yellow ocher (reddish yellow). This heavy console table in the Louis XIV style, which takes up two-thirds of the screen, was actually furniture that existed in Dufy's atelier before moving to Place Arago in Perpignan (Languedoc-Roussillon region, southern France). . It is placed between two large windows facing Plaza Arago, and a large mirror is attached to the wall, and Dufy also painted the decoration of the mirror behind the score. The Louis XIV-style console, characterized by straight lines and curves that conveys the luxurious and profound taste of Baroque with Renaissance influences, plays exquisite harmony with the music that seems to dance from the musical score and the violin in the foreground.