It's harvest time in Raoul Dufy's Arcadia, Langres, a commune in northeastern France, where autumn is sometimes foggy, wet, and even snowy.
But this is Dufy's Arcadia, so unpleasant conditions have been banished. This is a place where sheep may safely graze indeed. In the far background there are rows of laborers mowing and reaping. In the lower left corner there is an empty hayrick which draws our eyes to remnants of an antique Arcadia, a celebratory urn atop a pedestal and, this being a painting by Dufy, there is a lissome reclining woman,, her clothes nowhere to be seen. An open air social event, perhaps. Harvesting has never looked this festive.
On a serious note, Dufy's particular contribution to modernism was to marry formal avant-garde principles to a decorative aesthetic.
Image; Raoul Dufy - Harvest At Langres, circa 1938, Musee d'arte Moderne, Paris.
4 comments:
The definition of arcadia is usually a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. So we can expect to see hard working labourers on green land and under a sunny sky. But there is nothing more in harmony with nature than a naked woman luxuriating in the grass :)
Actually I prefer Dufy's seascapes and horse images, where the blue background is much richer.
Thanks for making us dream, Jane, it would be nice to lie down in the sun...
Hels, I like those genres of painting, too. I wanted to think about this particular painting because it is somewhat unusual in Dufy's work. Also, it made me think of Aristide Maillol's series of prints based on Virgil's "Georgics," another pastoral.
Tania, me also!
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