Dufy – Etude de robe pour Paul Poiret (fashion drawing)

Raoul Dufy
(1877 Le Havre – 1953 Forcalquier)

ETUDE DE ROBE POUR PAUL POIRET (dress study)

Executed ca. 1917

Ink and Indian ink on paper, 31.2 x 20.1 cm, stamped lower right: RD

Provenance: Private collection, France

Literature:
Galerie Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Galerie Neffe-Degandt, Raoul Dufy – Paul Poiret, Modèles, aquarelles & dessins, 1917-1919, Paris, London, 1998, ill. p. 45

Expertise by Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Paris, 2 October 2024, no. A24-9889.
In the catalogue raisonné no. As-1816

A career setback brought Raoul Dufy together with the great fashion designer Paul Poiret – a stroke of luck for his art and for fashion. Dufy, who had enjoyed great success with his cheerful, colourful, Fauvist paintings, had tried his hand at Cubism in vain and suffered financial ruin. To earn money, he worked as a book illustrator and caught the interest of Poiret, who recognised that Dufy’s modern, Art Deco-compatible drawings were ideal for fabric printing. Their collaboration lasted a good 20 years. During this time, Dufy designed fabrics, soon also in colour and with complex, figurative motifs, decorated Poiret’s parties and fashion shows, and drew his collections for the leading fashion magazines. Particularly famous is his panorama ‘Robes pour l’été’ for the May 1920 issue of Le Bon Ton. During his time with Poiret, Dufy developed the distinctive style for which he is known today. The present drawing shows one of Poiret’s day dresses from the 1920s.