Raoul Dufy - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “My interest has always been people.”
    —Inger Elliott

    Treasures from the Estate of Inger and Osborn Elliott

     

    Inger and Osborn Elliott cultivated an art collection worthy of praise. Their home served as a jewel box of taste, with brightly colored walls adorned with paintings, photographs, and drawings, all delicately and masterfully curated.  The couple's diverse collection reflects their devotion to New York City's cultural, intellectual, and civic spheres, while also spanning a global reach of artistic styles and techniques. Inger, originally from Norway, had a passion for photojournalism that brought her to Southeast Asia, where she documented the Vietnam War from a helicopter. She would later go on to found China Seas, a design firm specializing in batik textiles. Osborn, a revolutionary Newsweek editor and social advocate, went on to become the Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Trailblazers in their own regard, the Elliotts amassed a collection including rare, early works by Willem de Kooning, Wassily Kandinsky, and Milton Avery, among those by many other innovative modern and post-war painters, photographers, and printmakers.

     

     Inger and Osborn Elliott

    Inger and Oz's eye for style, together with a casual, chic approach to curation, set them apart from other collectors. It is their charisma that lives on through these artworks, proving that a distinct approach to collecting yields the finest quality. These artworks not only have excellent provenance, but also exhibit a unique rarity and quality,  remarkably contemporary despite their age. 
    “One must meditate about pleasure. Raoul Dufy is pleasure.”
    —Gertrude Stein 

    A highlight of the Elliott’s marvelous collection is Raoul Dufy’s La fenêtre aux vitres de couleurs from 1907. Known for his grand pictures of social life, usually set outdoors, here Dufy instead brings the viewer into an intimate and ornate interior, offering a contemplative composition focusing on colorful stained glass. Through the marvelous hues of rich yellow, deep blue and red, we can see a glimpse of a garden trellis under a blue sky. A stone banister grounds the righthand side of the composition, hinting at a grand staircase in a lavish home. A keen attention to architectural details is common in Dufy’s paintings, but this instance of proximity to the structures is certainly unique.

     

    Raoul Dufy, Window on the Promenande des Anglais, Nice, 1938, The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967, 1976-30-36

    Created during the height of Fauvism, La fenêtre aux vitres de couleurs exhibits Dufy’s preference for bold colors, while demonstrating a more analytical approach to his depiction of his surroundings. Dufy’s meditation into the physical world expressed through color, people, and plant life all share a distinct vocabulary in his paintings, and regardless of subject matter, Dufy consistently employs a variety of vibrant hues to inform these settings. With its bright colors, geometrically composed lines, and light-filled warmth, La fenêtre aux vitres de couleurs complements the many objects found in the Elliotts’ home. One of few interior scenes in Dufy’s early oeuvre, the present work is a remarkable example of his practice, cherished by the Elliotts for more than four decades. 

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      Marcel Kapferer, Paris
      Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Rübel, New York
      Perls Galleries, New York
      Mr. Crawford A. Black, New York
      Sotheby & Co., London, July 2, 1969, lot 60
      Perls Galleries, New York
      Inger Elliot, New York (acquired from the above on October 16, 1978)
      Thence by descent to the present owner

    • Exhibited

      San Francisco Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum, Raoul Dufy, 1877–1953, May 12–September 12, 1954, no. 5, pp. 10, 39 (illustrated, p. 10)
      New York, Perls Galleries, Raoul Dufy, January 31–March 12, 1955, no. 3, n.p. (illustrated; titled Le Vestibule aux Vitraux; dated 1906)
      New York, The Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Fort Worth, The Kimbell Art Museum, The "Wild Beasts," Fauvism and Its Affinities, March 26–October 31, 1976, p. 130 (illustrated; titled Vestibule with Stained-Glass Window; dated 1906)
      San Antonio, McNay Art Institute, Raoul Dufy Retrospective, May 4–June 29, 1980, no. 7, n.p. (illustrated; titled Vestibule with Stained Glass; dated 1906)
      London, Hayward Gallery, Raoul Dufy 1877–1953, London, 1983, no. 15, pp. 22, 161 (illustrated, p. 22; titled La fenêtre aux vitrines de couleur, dated circa 1906)

    • Literature

      Pierre Courthion, Raoul Dufy, Geneva, 1951, pl. 8, pp. 89, XI (illustrated, p. 89; titled La fenêtre aux Carreaux de Couleurs; dated 1906)
      Albert Skira, Fauvism, Paris, 1959, p. 110 (illustrated; titled Vestibule with Stained-Glass Windows; dated 1906)
      L’Arte Moderna, Fratelli Fabri, vol. 4, no. 29, p. 48 (illustrated)
      Joseph-Emile Muller, Le Fauvisme, Paris, 1956, no. 114 (illustrated)
      Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Paris, 1972, vol. I, no. 210, p. 180 (illustrated)
      Raoul Dufy, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, 1999, fig. 1., p. 86 (illustrated)

    • Artist Biography

      Raoul Dufy

      French • 1877 - 1953

      Born in 1877 in Le Havre, Raoul Dufy produced a large body of work through the art of painting, drawing, printmaking and textile design as well as by creating woodcuts and ceramics. A leading member of the Fauvist group of artists, Dufy was heavily influenced by Paul Cézanne after encountering his work in 1907. He continued to follow the Cubist movement until 1915 when his artistic language truly developed and matured. 

      Dufy is known for his colorful series of works depicting leisure activities and landscapes. He revisited certain themes during his lifetime, including those from the French Riviera, opera, seaside, sailing regattas, horse racing and musical events. As Gertrude Stein once admirably said, "Raoul Dufy is pleasure itself." The joy and lightness conveyed throughout Dufy's work are not only due to the subject matter but the artist's distinct style and exceptional use of color. Dufy was often considered a follower of the two French eighteenth-century artists Jean-Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In 1952, Dufy went on to win the International Grand Prix for painting with his commission for the 26th Venice Biennale.

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Property from the Estate of Inger and Osborn Elliott

116

La fenêtre aux vitres de couleurs

signed "Raoul Dufy" lower right
oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 25 3/8 in. (80.6 x 64.5 cm)
Painted in 1907.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
NY Head of Auctions and Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 May 2024