Dufy experimented with Fauvism, made some attempts at Cubism,
and in the years between 1905 and 1920, earned his living by working
on a museum staff designing fabrics, and doing some book illustration.
Painting at Honfleur toward the end of World War I, Dufy observed
that line moves more rapidly than color does and that the human eye
receives the sensation of color more easily than that of movement,
thus holding this mental image longer. The painter's perception led
to his development of that lightning-fast, calligraphic, short, curved
line with which his pen or pencil was forever to move across paper.
It also led to his application of color in "diffusions" that were
not strictly confined to outlines but sometimes swept across a work
in broad bands coloring objects perhaps half-green and half-blue and
thus making them part of a lively, moving world held together in tight
compositions in which both color and line dance and sparkle.
To this understanding of movement and color Dufy added a love of poetry,
music, drawing, painting, and of simply being alive. His personal
symbolism, sensitive touch, and feeling for color create a world of
fashionable pleasure from which he made a natural transition to textile
design, ceramic decoration, and decorative painting. By 1925, his
reputation solidly established, he was commissioned to paint murals
for many French public buildings. He began to suffer from multiple-arthritis
in 1937, and moved to southwestern France for his health. When the
disease progressed to the point that he could no longer paint, he
came to the United States for cortisone treatment in 1947. After the
treatment and a trip to Arizona, Dufy, although not cured, was well
enough to return to France and to continue painting until his death
in 1953.
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