The city, view from the Town Hall (La cité, vue de l’Hôtel de Ville); verso Forest

ESSAY: The city, view from the Town Hall

From the late nineteenth century Paris was considered the epicentre of the artistic world, a period during which artists from around the globe (including many Australians) flocked to the French capital to immerse themselves in the lifestyle and culture of the city, although, most importantly, in the art. It was from this dynamic artistic environment that Dufy emerged and where he began to paint and exhibit in earnest. The city, view of the Town Hall, executed just three years after Dufy’s first exhibition, captures the essence of everyday life in fin-de-siècle Paris. A preference for painting en plein air, first embraced by the Impressionists, continued during the first half of the twentieth century, with artists often found painting out on the streets of Paris and in the many spectacular public parks, such as the Jardins de Luxembourg.

Dufy’s cityscape depicts the humble apple markets on the banks of the Seine and, rather than the greys and muted tones we might expect of the cobblestone streets and city architecture, we see in the foreground a street bathed in sunlight, emphasised by delicate hues of pink, yellow and blue; the tents of the markets and small boats are more sombre but are highlighted with splashes of orange, pink and burgundy. In the background the city buildings and towers of Notre Dame are depicted with a different shades of blue – a colour which features strongly in much of his later fauvist work. This work reveals Dufy as a true master of colour.

The work is particularly unusual because it includes another painting by Dufy on its verso – a scene of dappled light falling in a wooded landscape. It is likely an earlier work by Dufy, perhaps considered by him to be less successful, or perhaps he was simply being economical with canvas, reversing and restretching it to create his ‘new’ city view. While arguably not as refined as the cityscape, the landscape offers further insight into the artist’s working method.

Extract from Curtin, Tansy 2021, 'Raoul Dufy - The city, view of the Town Hall', AGSA Magazine, issue 45, Summer 2021-22, p.20.