The Gérard Oury Collection

To mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of Gérard Oury, a new facet of his talent is to be revealed to the public: the man to whom we owe some of the most memorable moments in French cinema was also a bold and committed collector.

Gérard's taste was formed as a boy by his mother Marcelle, who was friends with many artists of the period. She gave her son the rare opportunity to encounter works and artists at close quarters on a daily basis. During his career in the theatre and cinema, Gérard Oury never lost the indefatigable curiosity typical of all great collectors, and continuously pursued and expanded his collection. His penchant for Fauve colours and alert, sensual draughtsmanship will now be revealed to the public for the first time.

Gérard Oury strove to comprehend the mysteries of artistic inspiration. He was on friendly terms with “his” artists, and an avid reader of books about them – hence his extensive library, also to be offered for sale, which reflects his close ties with the leading artistic and intellectual figures of post-war Paris.

Gérard Oury Collection it’s:

• - Over 300 Lots
• - 90 works by Raoul Dufy
• - 40 works by Jacques Villon
• - 25 works by Marcel Gromaire - works by Maillol, Dunoyer de segonzac, Chagall, Lapicque, Fujita, Buffet, Pignon, de Chirico
• - Library
• - Archives

Oury and Dufy’s Works

After the success of Corniaud, Gérard Oury followed in the footsteps of his mother Marcelle, a Dufy devotee, by surrounding himself with major paintings by Dufy, whose colourful palette had lit up his childhood. Oury enjoyed an intimate, almost filial relationship with Dufy. In November 1946, when Oury was still a young man, just back in Paris after the Liberation and fretting about his future, Dufy wrote to him:

“At your age and with your talent and passion for the arts in general and the theatre in particular, how can you worry about the future for one second? An artist is seated on a rock, out of reach of the waves, however violent the storm. Remember this whenever you think you’ve cause to be sad. Believe a man who knows what he’s talking about!”

All Raoul Dufy’s main subjects – regattas, horseracing, orchestras, bathers streets bedecked with flags – are represented among the 60 works in the collection, charting all the major periods of his career.

Dufy discovered Fauvism at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, when Henri Matisse’s painting Luxe, Calme & Volupté proved a revelation. Dufy adopted the Fauves’ wild colouring for the next two years.

 

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Recto: Bathers
Verso: Landscape, 1907

Oil on canvas signed bottom right
38 x 47 cm

Exhibitions: Raoul Dufy, Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts/Musée de l’Imprimerie) & Barcelona (Museu Picasso/ Museu Tèxtil i Indumentària), January–July 1999, n°33, rep. p.96
Raoul Dufy – Le Plaisir, Paris (Musée National d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), October 2008–January 2009, n°40, col. rep. p.52
Literature: to be included in the second supplement to Fanny Guillon-Laffaille’s Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint de Raoul Dufy currently under preparation

Boats in Martigues, painted in late 1907/08 between Fauvism and Cubism (a key period in Dufy’s work), is an exceptional painting in terms of its construction and colouring, with the influence of Cézanne beginning to emerge in the layered background and the slightly Cubist-style houses. It was shown recently at the Paris Modern Art Museum’s major retrospective Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Boats in Martigues, late 1907-1908

Oil on canvas signed bottom left
46 x 54,40 cm

Exhibitions: Raoul Dufy, Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts/Musée de l’Imprimerie) & Barcelona (Museu Picasso/ Museu Tèxtil i Indumentària), January–July 1999, n°33, rep. p.96.
Raoul Dufy – Le Plaisir, Paris (Musée National d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), October 2008–January 2009, n°40, col. rep. p.52
Literature: to be included in the second supplement to Fanny Guillon-Laffaille’s Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint de Raoul Dufy currently under preparation

Dufy’s Bather (c.1914) in gouache, watercolour and charcoal, from his Grande Baigneuse (Large Bather) series of 1914, is a rare work in terms of format, subject-matter and quality.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Bather, 1914

Gouache, watercolour & charcoal on paper mounted on canvas, signed lower right.
155 x 131 cm

There are many works from Dufy’s exuberant maturity. Take Baccara (c.1925), in watercolour and gouache – one of Dufy’s few casino scenes, reflecting his interest in frivolous society. The work is linked to the tapestry made for the couturier Paul Poiret to mark the Exposition Internationale in 1925.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Baccara, circa 1925

Watercolour & gouache on paper, signed lower right
50 x 65 cm

Literature: Fanny Guillon-Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue Raisonné des Aquarelles, Gouaches & Pastels – tome II (Editions Louis Carré & Cie, Paris 1982, n°1589, rep. p.192)

Dufy also liked to evoke the ceremony of horseracing and water sports. His Regatta (1928), in watercolour and gouache, is typical of his love for aquatic tradition, and painted with great gusto; it is one of the most appealing works in the collection.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Regatta, 1928

Watercolour & gouache on paper mounted on canvas, signed bottom right
109 x 138 cm

Harbour at Deauville or White Cargo (c.1928), in oil on canvas, is a cheerful excuse for exploring colour, with its carefully orchestrated red and green pennants fluttering in the wind.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

The Harbour in Deauville, circa 1928

Oil on canvas signed lower right
38,50 x 46 cm

Literature: Dora Perez-Tibi, Dufy (Flammarion, Paris 1989, n°202, col. rep. p.159)
To be included in the second supplement to Fanny Guillon-Laffaille’s Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint de Raoul Dufy

Horseracing, another of Dufy’s pet subjects, is represented in the Oury Collection by Punters on the Turf (c.1930-35), watercolour and gouache on paper; and his 1949 oil-on-canvas In The Paddock.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Punters on the Turf, circa 1930-1935

Watercolour & gouache on paper signed lower right
48 x 63 cm

Literature: to be included in the supplement to Fanny Guillon-Laffaille’s Catalogue Raisonné des Aquarelles, Gouaches & Pastels de Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

In the Paddock, 1949

Oil on canvas signed lower right
140 x 161 cm

Literature: J.P.Crespelle, Raoul Dufy il y a cinquante ans faisait banco sur la jeunesse (in L’Officiel n°618, September 1975, col. rep. p.237)
Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint – tome II (Editions Motte, Geneva 1976, n°1277, rep. p. 291)

In a rather different style, Dufy’s painting After Constantin Guys (1935) is one of the few copies he made after a previous master, along with works inspired by Renoir and Tintoretto.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

After Constantin Guys, 1935

Oil on canvas signed and titled bottom centre
130 x 160 cm

Literature: Marcelle Oury, Lettre à mon peintre Raoul Dufy (Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 1965, col. rep. pp 68/9)
Maurice Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint – tome IV (Editions Motte, Geneva 1977, n°1612, col. rep. p.172)
Dora Perez-Tibi, Dufy (Flammarion, Paris 1989, n°346, col. rep. p.281)

The collection also evokes the monumental commissions Dufy carried out during his career, like a preparatory study (on panel) for his colossal 1937 masterpiece La Fée Electricité. This 500m2 fresco, designed for the Exposition Universelle of 1937 and on permanent display in the City of Paris Modern Art Museum, sings the praises of electricity – a crucial discovery for modern society – with an accumulation of portraits and scientific discoveries forming a dazzling game of visual hide-and-seek.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

La fée électricité, 1937

Oil on panel (diptych), signed bottom right
48,50 x 97 cm

Orchestra with Green Music Stand (1941) is unusual for its dense ink-work, allied to use of watercolour. This, too, was shown at the recent Raoul Dufy – Le Plaisir exhibition in Paris.

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

Orchestra with Green Music Stand, 1941

Watercolour & gouache on paper
50 x 65 cm

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Sale Info

Sales: 1596-1672

Location: Hôtel Marcel Dassault

Sessions: Sale 1596: 20 April at 8pm
Sale 1672: 21 April 2009 at 2:30pm

Auctionner: Francis Briest

Exhibitions

Hôtel Marcel Dassault

Viewing of entire Collection

14-19 April, 11am-7pm

Hôtel Marcel Dassault
7 rond-point des Champs Elysées
F-75008 Paris

Travelling Exhibition

New York (French Embassy)

5-7 March, 11am-7pm

Payne Whitney Mansion
Cultural Services of the French Embassy

972 Fifth Avenue
NY 10021 New York

Cologne (Lempertz)

19-20 March, 11am-6pm

Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Cologne

Zurich (Koller)

26-27 March, 10am-6pm

28 March, 10am-3pm

Hardturmstrasse 102
CH-8031 Zurich

Bruxelles (Lempertz)

2-3 April, 11am-6pm

Rue aux Laines 1
B-1000 Bruxelles

Catalogue

Gérard Oury Collection - Part 1

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Gérard Oury Collection - Part 2

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Department

Modern Art >

Specialist

Violaine de La Brosse-Ferrand

Phone +33 1 42 99 20 32

Press Contact

Armelle Maquin

Phone +33 1 43 14 05 69

Mob. +33 6 11 70 44 74