Dufy, Raoul

French-born Raoul Dufy is considered one of the most important painters of the École de Paris. Coming from Impressionism, he joined the Fauves as early as 1903. His characteristic painting style can be well analyzed in paintings such as "The Racecourse of Deauville" (1930): not the protagonists or the foreground catch the eye, but the atmospheric - the light foliage of the trees, the apparent movement of the sky, the special light of this warm summer day. No brushstroke is left to chance, and yet Dufy's pictures seem pleasantly uninhibited and of touching tenderness.