Dufy, Raoul

French Fauvist painter who lived from 1877-1953. Dufy was a “working class” artist who began working in a coffee import company at the age of fourteen. By eighteen, he was taking night classes in art. After a year of military service, Dufy continued his studies at the same institute as George Braques. Early on, Dufy was influenced by Impressionist painters, but viewing Matisse’s work turned Dufy’s eye to Fauvism. 
==Stevens Poems:==
“Lions in Sweden” line 18: “To Monsieur Dufy’s Hamburg whence they came”
Refers to collection of 30 poems written by Guillaume Apollinaire that included woodcuts by Dufy. According to the Wallace Stevens Dictionary put together by Stevens’ scholars, the “poem symbolize a rejection of outworn classical images, so if they have become mere souvenirs—relics of the past—then they should be sent back to the zoo, ‘To Monsieur Dufy’s Hamburg whence they came’ (18)” (“Hamburg” n.p.). 
==Connections to Stevens:==
Wallace Stevens, A Note on Raoul Dufy, 1953. A four page essay on Dufy’s painting, La Fee Electrique. Stevens collected Dufy’s art and felt inspired by the color schemes, subject matter, and artistic representation of philosophy. 
Edward Ragg, Wallace Stevens and the Aesthetics of Abstraction, 2010. Ragg quotes Stevens as saying, “When I was able to sit in a room full of the paintings of Raoul Dufy [. . .] my chief pleasure was in the companionship of Dufy himself, without any factitious chic.” This quote is also included Holly Stevens collection of her father’s letters. This particular quote comes form a letter written to Barbara Church on December 12, 1949. 
Bart Eeckhout, Wallace Stevens and the Limits of Reading and Writing, 2002. Eeckhout quotes Stevens as saying, “All the ideas, documentation, study and observation . . . are subdued, finally, by Dufy’s sense” (216).
==References:==
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy’s woodcuts
 “Hamburg” 
Eeckhout, Bart. Wallace Stevens and the Limits of Reading and Writing. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2002. Google Books. Web. 
Ragg Edward. Wallace Stevens and the Aesthetics of Abstraction. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. Google Books. Web.