L'Écuyere au Cirque Medrano. 1929.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated lower right. 50 x 65 cm (19,6 x 25,5 in).

Accompanied by a photo expertise issued by Jacques Bailly, Paris, dated 4 October, 2005. The painting will be included into the forthcoming catalogue raisonné.

Like his brother Raoul, Jean Dufy also depicted the most charming side of Paris. The world of parks, idlers, the great revues and of the circus. An idea of Paris that comes up in people all over the world when they think about the metropolis on the river Seine. Following his great role models such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and especially Georges Seurat, whose "Le Cirque" from 1890/91 shows strong similarities, Jean Dufy freely designed the motif of the circus artist on the horseback. He was concerned with a bold attitude. Like Seurat the artist seemed to float on the horse far from any earthly gravity. A dynamic diagonal in the composition, marked by the white horse, highlights the risk of this performance, at the same time lifting to an elegance of the unreal. [KD]