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A painting of the start of a horse race, people viewing are gathered near the fence.

A painting shows the horses starting the race on a grass track, on the left, a fence separates the viewers from the track. There are numerous people lined up near the fence. There are chairs some empty, some with viewers scattered on the lawn and people standing on the steps of the viewing stand to the right. A flag flies from the top of the stands. A view of tree lined hills where they meet the sky. The sky is blue with darker patches near the tree line.

Gallery Text

Though he initially worked in an impressionist style, Dufy’s practice as a designer and painter was characterized by the use of bright, flat colors. He developed this style after encountering the art of Henri Matisse and the Fauves at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, the newly inaugurated annual exhibition of modern art in Paris. Dufy often depicted horse races, regattas, and other upper-class amusements, and he produced more than thirteen paintings of the racetrack at Deauville, Normandy, including this one. Here he applies vibrant blues, greens, and purples in transparent washes that burst through the outlines meant to confine them, while the calligraphic lines that define the spectators and chairs on the lawn lend a sense of movement and spontaneity to the scene. The decorative qualities of this and other works by Dufy stem from his collaboration with the fashion designer Paul Poiret and the silk manufacturer Bianchini Férier between 1912 and 1928.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.48
People
Raoul Dufy, French (Le Havre, France 1877 - 1953 Forcalquier, France)
Title
Race Track at Deauville, the Start
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1929
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228648

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1220, European Art, 19th–20th century, Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
66 x 81.6 cm (26 x 32 1/8 in.)
framed: 84.3 x 100.3 x 7 cm (33 3/16 x 39 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.c.: Raoul Dufy 1929
  • label: verso, stretcher, printed label with object information handwritten in graphite: PM / ARTIST Raoul Dufy / TITLE Race track Deauville / DATE 1929 / SIZE / NO. S -102
  • inscription: verso, center stretcher, handwritten in red chalk: 334
  • label: verso, center stretcher, label with red border, handwritten in black ink: 568 / Dufy
  • stamp: verso, center stretcher, rectangular stamp in red ink: PM
  • inscription: verso, stretcher, handwritten in blue crayon: 41090[?]
  • inscription: verso stretcher, handwritten in red crayon: 41090[?]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pierre Matisse Gallery, sold; to Maurice Wertheim, (1938 - 1951), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1951.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.48
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK HAS SIGNIFICANT LOAN RESTRICTIONS BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Marcelle Berr de Turique, Raoul Dufy, Librairie Floury (Paris, France, 1931), p. 110
  • New York City, exh. cat., Carroll Carstairs Gallery (New York, NY, 1940)
  • Alfred M. Frankfurter, "Today's Collectors: Modern Milestones", Art News (June 1946), vol. XLV, no. 4, p. 64
  • French Painting since 1870, lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), p. 62, repr. p. 63
  • La Peinture Française Depuis 1870: Collection Maurice Wertheim, exh. cat., Tom Taylor (Québec, Canada, 1949), p. 69, repr. p. 70, no. 26
  • John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art, Henry Holt and Co. (New York, NY, 1959), pp. 408-409, repr. p. 409
  • The Maurice Wertheim Catalogue: Modern French Art-- Monet to Picasso, exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC, 1960), p. 12, repr. p. 13
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 16, pl. 3
  • Kenneth Stuart, Reader's Digest Family Treasury of Great Painters and Great Paintings, Reader's Digest Association (Pleasantville, NY, 1965), repr. in color p. 180
  • Alan Gowans, The Restless Art: A History of Painters and Painting 1760-1960, J. B. Lippincott Co. (Philadelphia, PA, 1966), repr. p. 339
  • Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint, Editions Motte (Geneva, Switzerland, 1972 - 1977), vol. III no. 1293
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), repr. no. 9
  • John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 36, p. 128-130, repr. in color p. 129; p. 159
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1990), repr. in color no. 40, p. 111
  • Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6

Exhibition History

  • New York City, Carroll Carstairs Gallery, New York, 02/06/1940 - 03/16/1940
  • French Painting since 1870 lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1946 - 09/07/1946; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 07/01/1953 - 09/13/1953
  • La Peinture Française depuis 1870, Musée de la Province de Quebec, 07/12/1949 - 08/07/1949
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
  • French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, 06/01/1971 - 09/30/1971
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
  • Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, 03/01/1990 - 04/10/1990; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 04/14/1990 - 05/13/1990
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1220 Wertheim, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/13/2015 - 01/01/2050

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu