Nu debout

Posed with her left arm on her hip and her head turned towards the right edge of the composition, the female nude in Raoul Dufy’s Nu debout takes centre stage within the piece, conveying the artist’s experimentation with angularity, rhythm and structure during this period. This captivating work was painted in 1909, a key moment in the early twentieth century when simultaneously emerging artistic movements gave rise to a kaleidoscope of stylistic and experimental resonances. Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), immediately precedes Dufy’s Nu debout, evidencing the cubist and structural reflections of the period on the iconographic trope of the female figure. The assertive, powerful presence of the sitter in Dufy’s work along with the muscularity of her torso and averted gaze, are later echoed in Georges Braque’s Bather (1925).

Dufy had recently seen works by Matisse such as Luxe, Calme et Volupté (1904) exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants a few years earlier in 1905, taking inspiration from the Fauvist palette and the bold contours intrinsic to the movement. However, the specificity of Dufy’s work lies in the fascinating combination of painterly techniques throughout his oeuvre, often displaying a playful and liberated creative vision. The seemingly static posture of the female sitter is belied by the ferocity of Dufy’s feathery brushstrokes throughout the composition, energising the presence of the mustard yellow and red wardrobe as well as the shades of blue in the backdrop. Dufy’s unusual use of symmetry is also fascinating in this piece, as he positions the female sitter between the two different backdrops. The woman’s undefined gaze in Nu debout, with her eyes neither completely open nor entirely closed, creates intrigue and an air of mystery surrounding the female’s contemplative expression.