Raoul Dufy was fascinated by Society and their lives. Finding inspiration in their vibrant chatter and glorious costumes, he chronicled their lives in an extraordinary series of works throughout the 1930s and 40s. He shared their love of music, the theatre, the circus, art galleries and sporting events, particularly horse racing. These works, including the present gouache, ‘Le Repas des Chasseurs’, are a celebration of Dufy’s joie de vivre and extraordinary facility with complex compositions. His animated paintings employ a rich use of colour and which derives from his early Fauve paintings and his relationship with Matisse and Braque.

‘Le Repas des Chasseurs’ depicts a group of friends enjoying a convivial meal. While the men converse exuberantly in their groups, the waiters bring out dishes and the dogs lounge at their feet. The bold washes of colour and intricate decoration on the wallpaper add to the joyous nature of the scene.

Dufy created the gouache for Gaston Derys in order to accompany the author’s publication ‘Mon Docteur Le Vin’, an ode to the health benefits of enjoying wine in good company and a reflection of the exuberance of earlier notions of wine as a medicinal remedy. In the text for Dufy’s ‘Le Repas des Chasseurs’ the value of a good wine as a meal, particularly a preference for a Bordeaux is humorously discussed. In 1936, the same year this work was created, the famous Parisian gallery Berheim Jeune mounted a display of the twenty pieces Dufy had created for ‘Mon Docteur Le Vin’.