This picture Duffy wrote during the trip, along with Georges Braque “in the footsteps of Cezanne.” Muted, “heavy” tone paintings, distorted forms. – all this he borrowed from the famous post-impressionist. But soon the artist realized that Cubism is not his path. And again I went in search of my own style.
In search of himself, Dufy was not an early-maturing artist. He searched his way for a long time in painting, paying tribute to Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism. None of these currents captured him completely. The attitude of Dufy demanded other expressive means – the means that were not in the arsenal of contemporary artistic trends.
Again and again Duffy had to start from scratch until, finally, a portrait of his childlike, cheerful, joyous muse, unlike his merchandise, the twisted Muses of the 20th century, did not appear on this sheet. A hieroglyphically exact outline traced the artist to her light figure; transparent, bright colors became her smile.
Other critics reproached Duffy for being “not serious”, that his manner was spoiled by too much work in the field of arts and crafts. Perhaps there was some truth in these words. Dufy is a mature period and is really deliciously frivolous and somewhat decorative. Every artist overcomes and orders chaos in his own way. And, it seems, Dufy’s “frivolous” way is by far not the worst of them.
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