Raoul Dufy, a decorator and designer as well as a painter, has strong claim to be “one of the greatest colourists” of all time. Born in Le Havre, Dufy arrived in Paris to study at the École Superieure des Beaux Arts at the turn of the century and immediately established a prominent position in Europe’s most dynamic art centre. His interest in the expressive use of colour freed from its mimetic function together with his explorations into the descriptive potential of line led to an immediate rapport with Henri Matisse. After their first meeting in 1905, Dufy adopted the colour theories of Matisse and other Fauve artists and quickly became a central figure amongst this new movement. Taken on immediately by the dealer Berthe Weill, Dufy exhibited alongside Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Marquet.

By the mid-1920s Dufy had established his radical personal style of painting, which was to characterise his artistic production yet to come. The accessibility and ‘joie de vivre’ of the paintings and drawings of Dufy’s mature period attracted an increasingly larger audience making him an extremely successful painter all over Europe as well as across the world. Both the style and the subject matter of his paintings talk of joyous events that reflect his bright approach to life. As he matured he developed a technique that enabled him to paint, in his own words, “…the way I see things with my eyes and in my heart”.

Horse racing, an activity in which Dufy took much delight, was the primary inspiration for a whole body of his work: his fascination with this subject is beautifully illustrated in “Courses a Deauville”. Considered the “queen of the Norman beaches”, Deauville is famous for its harbour and characteristic marinas but also for its racecourses. La Touques is a stunning, expansive racecourse that captivated Dufy throughout his career.

This watercolour exemplifies the spontaneity, vibrancy and sense of adventure of Dufy’s mature style. His individual manner of dissociating colour from line – hallmark of his mature style - characterises this watercolour. An astonishing balance of radiant thinly washed colour, previously applied in patches, makes up the background over which Dufy’s elegant figures seem to glide.