Le grand orchestre

Le grand orchestre is one of a series of orchestral scenes that French Fauvism artist Raoul Dufy commenced at the beginning of the 1940s. Born into a musical family – Dufy’s father was a part-time organist and church choir conductor, and two of his brothers were musicians – the artist was immersed in the world of music from an early age, and had first depicted an orchestra in 1902. It was not until the 1940s, during the Second World War, that he returned to the subject matter of music, embarking on a theme that would reinvigorate his art and fascinate him throughout the decade. Dufy painted and sketched numerous depictions of instrumental concertos, orchestras, choirs and singers, and later created pictorial homages to his favourite composers, including Mozart, Bach and Chopin. Le grand orchestre is an expression of the joy that Dufy found in music at this time.

Depicting the orchestra from above, Dufy has painted an array of musicians in the middle of their performance. Painted with rich tones of orange and yellow, Le grand orchestre demonstrates the artist’s distinctive use of colour: over broad swathes of colour, Dufy has drawn the outlines of figures and their instruments, creating the compositional structure of the scene. Like notes on a musical score, the rows of performers, including violinists, flutists and cellists, are depicted in a frenetic flurry of lines, giving a sense of animated movement and dynamism to the painting. The repeated shapes and lines create a melodious rhythm that evokes the cadences and harmonies of music. Bringing music and painting together, Le grand orchestre conveys a sense of exuberance. Pablo Casals, a famous cellist and friend of the artist said upon seeing one of Dufy’s orchestra scenes such as Le grand orchestre: ‘I cannot tell what piece your orchestra is playing, but I know which key it is written in’ (P. Casals quoted in, D. Perez-Tibi, Dufy, London, 1989, p. 292).