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Lot Essay
Guy Pène du Bois’s development as an ardent social observer began while he was studying under Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. Henri, a passionate realist, urged his students to take people that surrounded them as subjects and attempt to capture their essence. Upon turning forty, Pène du Bois decided to dedicate himself more fully to his art and in 1924 moved to Paris with his family. After initially struggling to develop his own pictorial vocabulary, he established a unique aesthetic, which mingled traditional figurative subjects with distinctly modern narratives. Plagued by periods of inactivity and in search of new material, Pène du Bois briefly moved his family to Nice in 1929 before returning to the United States in the spring of 1930.
Rather than focusing on the gritty side of urban life, as did many of his peers, Pène du Bois chose to concentrate on the metropolitan sophisticates of New York. In paintings such as The Diners, the artist captures the contrasts and nuances inherent to bourgeois lifestyle. When commenting on his approach to portraying any scene, Pène du Bois once said that "the artist must not forget that he is an observer, a man watching the parade from a safe though convenient distance and armed, in any case, with enough strength of character to be kept physically out of it." (as quoted in "Guy Pène du Bois," International Studio, June 1922, p. 245) The Diners is executed in the stylized realism that is characteristic of the artist's mature approach and technique.
Rather than focusing on the gritty side of urban life, as did many of his peers, Pène du Bois chose to concentrate on the metropolitan sophisticates of New York. In paintings such as The Diners, the artist captures the contrasts and nuances inherent to bourgeois lifestyle. When commenting on his approach to portraying any scene, Pène du Bois once said that "the artist must not forget that he is an observer, a man watching the parade from a safe though convenient distance and armed, in any case, with enough strength of character to be kept physically out of it." (as quoted in "Guy Pène du Bois," International Studio, June 1922, p. 245) The Diners is executed in the stylized realism that is characteristic of the artist's mature approach and technique.