Evening star., 1951-05-13
4 ri
Rooul Duty Works
In Benefit Show
At Phillips
BY Florence S. Berrymon

WHICH DTOuSUb
IRaoul Duffy, a foremost artist Of
the modern French school, to. the
United States a year ago. is al
ready known to many art lovers.
1t has appeared In newspapers
and magazines. with q particularly
good account in Life last January.
accompanied by color illustrations
|of Dufy's water colors Of New York
City and Boston, and their en-
|virons. These paintings, which
were shown at the Care Gallery
in New York as q benefit for the
Arthritis and Rheumatism Foun-
ldation, are now on view at the
Phillips Gallery through June 8.
Duffy, now 73. has had o career
of half a century. In his late
teens, he began to study art In
LIE Havre, his native city, and his
earliest paintings showed the in
|fuence of the impressionists. Be-
coming acquainted In 1905 with
the work Of Matisse, Duffy soon
Joined the group Influenced by the
pioneer modernist. Their unin-
|hibited use of color earned them
the name LES Fauves" wild
beasts.
But Duffy was no mere follower.
After further study, he soon de-
veloped a personal style, a light.
sparkling. calligraphic handling
of water color, admirably suited
to the sophisticated subjects which
interested him. No recluse by
nature, he preferred to paint i'm
pressions of Paris. Deauville. the
Riviera, fashionable resorts. horse
races, and many other places and
activities that attracted worldly,
cultivated extravert.
His work was not popular be-
fore World War I, and he turned
to printed fabrics and book illus
|tration for his living. His textile
prints made into dresses by
Poiret were Immediately success
full. Dufy's experiments in these
fields were synthesized with his
painting, and from the 1920s on,
he was "in." His work was ex-
hibited almost annually in New
York City, long before he came
to the United States for the first
time, in 1887, as a member Of the
jury for the Carnegie Interna-
tional. The Phillips Gallery had
a one-man show by Duffy early
in the 1940s.
Lived in Seclusion.
During the Nazi occupation of
France, Duffy lived in seclusion
in Perpignan. continued to paint,
but suffered increasingly from
crippling arthritis. A photograph
of him in Life December, 1949)
caught the attention of DR.. Freddy
Homburger, a research professor
of medicine at Tufts College, par
ticularly interested in arthritis.
He noticed the gnarled and twist
led appearance of Dufy's hands,
wrote and invited the French
artist to come to Boston and re-
ceive the new arthritis treatment
as gift.
Duffy arrived in April. 1850, and
after a few months, his hands
were improved to the extent that
he could sketch once more. BY
autumn he was painting indus
|triously, the pictures now on view
lat the Phillips Gallery.
|, Dufy's watercolors need no ex-
PLANTATION. They are gay and vital
captures Of cities and towns, of
|parades and baseball games, res
taurantS and the theater. There
are also number of portraits, one
|of young DR.. Hamburger, another
Iof Jacques Maroger. inventor of
the 'Maroger medium" an effort
Ito approximate the medium used
by the old masters, which has in
terested many outstanding French
and American painters, including
Duffy.