1877-1953

Raoul Dufy and his brother Jean have always been a regular presence at St. James’s Art Books; at the moment, we hold a fine oil on board depicting a nude looking just about comfortable in the middle of a full complement orchestra. This is definitely the most important work by Dufy that we ever had.

We also hold in stock two pencil sketches, drawn during the artist’s voyage to America in 1950 and gifted to Mme Berthe Reisz. Berthe Reisz was nurse, confidante, companion and model to the artist and accompanied him to the USA in 1950, a journey that the artist undertook in order to be treated there with a newly discovered cortison therapy for his severe rheumatism. Both sketches are executed on paper place mats; there are other drawings by him executed of the same place mats, all from this period. These two  were in Mme Reisz collection all her life. They both bear verso the notary stamp, certifying the provenance.