Raoul Dufy

Morel Collection
Galerie Hopkins-Thomas, Paris
Connaught Brown, London
Private collection, London (acquired from the above on 25 April 1991)

F. Guillon-Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue raisonné des aquarelles, gouaches et pastels, Paris, 1982, vol. II, p. 199, no. 1612 (illustrated) 

Le depart pour la soirée is one of Dufy’s outstanding compositions. Fascinated by the lives of the elite, in the present work he depicted a bourgeoise couple preparing for an evening of engagements. Throughout his oeuvre, Dufy drew inspiration from society events, luxurious costumes and animated scenes before him. In 1911, Dufy worked alongside the acclaimed fashion designer Paul Poiret, creating fabrics and prints, before being hired by the design manufacturer Bianchini-Férier. Dufy was acclaimed for his bold floral motifs, which are clearly translated onto the curtains and screen in Le depart pour la soirée. The bouquet of flowers in the foreground is another calling card in Dufy’s work. Here, he has elegantly woven the still life into the scene by tying the crimson of the roses to that of the leaves in the pattern. During the period in which he created Le depart pour la soirée—the 1930s—Dufy was at the height of his fame. He felt free to experiment with compositions, often using washes of colour defined with fluid energetic lines. In Le depart pour la soirée, this technique is used to great effect in the robes of the reclining woman. Dufy had a keen interest in the effects of colour and light, and the evolution of his ‘couleur-lumiere’ theory: “Light is the soul of colour, without light, colour is lifeless”.

Clearly taken by this image, Dufy created a companion piece to Le depart pour la soirée, to accompany Gaston Derys’s publication, titled Mon Docteur Le Vin. The book was a humorous ode to the health benefits of enjoying wine – a reflection on the exuberance of earlier notions of wine as a medicinal remedy.