Oil painting on canvas, laid down on board. Hand signed "Jean Dufy" lower left. Image size: 14 3/8" x 17 1/2"; Framed: 24 3/8" x 27 5/8" Jean Dufy was born in Le Havre in 1888, into a family with ten siblings including another aspiring painter, Raoul. Jean Dufy found his true calling when discovered the paintings of Matisse, Derain, and Picasso at the 1906 Le Havre exposition. In 1912, he moved to Paris and grew acquainted with the artists Derain, Braque, Picasso, and Apollinaire. At the Berthe Weill gallery in 1914, he had his first solo exhibition of watercolors, painted in muted tones with a hatching technique that he learned from his brother, Raoul Dufy. In 1920, while living in Montmartre, Jean Dufy gained international recognition, with exhibitions in Paris and New York. Two events in the postwar Parisian cultural scene greatly inspired the artist’s creative output: the 1920 comedy “Le Bœuf sur le toit,” gave him the chance to meet the great French musicians of the era; and “La Revue Nègre,” in 1925, which crystallized the marriage of color and music in his paintings. During this period, Jean also paid homage to the Fratellini brothers, painting circuses, clowns, horses, and athletes. He utilized the lyrical language of color, played with light, and had a penchant for the liberal use of white, a style for which he became well known. Jean Dufy passed away on May 12, 1964, in La Boissière in the village of Boussay.