21
Epsom, la course, c. 1930-35
Signed and dedicated lower centre 'à Germaine Bignou Raoul Dufy'
Gouache and watercolour on paper
19 3/4 x 25 3/8 in, 50.2 x 64.5 cm
Provenance
Germaine Bignou Collection, Paris
Galerie Bignou, Paris
Maggie Sheerin Collection, San Antonio, USA
Private collection, France
Exhibitions
San Antonio, McNay Art Institute, Raoul Dufy rétrospective, May – June 1980, no.49
Literature
Paris, F. Guillon-Laffaille, Catalogue Raisonné des aquarelles, gouaches et pastels de
Raoul Dufy, Tome I, 1981, p.376, no.1034 (illus.)
Dufy's interest in the pastimes of society extended to amusements at the
racecourses of Ascot, Epsom and Goodwood, which he visited during his
travels to England in the 1930s. Key examples of these works made at Ascot
and Epsom can now be found in the Musée d'Ar t Moderne de la Ville in
Paris. In these images, often set behind the scenes of the races themselves,
Dufy discovered an ideal subject to witness the fashions and tastes of
contemporary life.
Epsom, la course epitomizes the social spectacle of the racecourse at Epsom in
Surrey: a subject that Dufy returned to throughout his long career. Highlighting
colourful advertisements, Dufy crucially focuses upon the expectant anxiety of
the crowd sitting in the stands or standing beside the racetrack instead of the
race itself. In this way Dufy shows the horses to be a mere backdrop to his
fascination with human activity.
