Cheval à Epsom

In 1910, Raoul Dufy and the designer Paul Poiret formed a partnership and founded a highly successful atelier devoted to the creation of printed and dyed textiles. During the mid-1920s, Poiret often required Dufy to accompany him to the races and to observe and paint fashionable society ladies wearing his silks. Dufy's interest in documenting fashion did not last as his focus rapidly turned to the action of the horses, the spectators and their surroundings. "In his sketchbooks he jotted down the silhouettes of the figures in the spectator area and the various attitudes of the horses captured mid-race. These studies reveal his attention to evocative details: his paintings and watercolors admirably convey the special atmosphere of race-courses and the gaily coloured crowd of spectators" (D. Perez-Tibi, Dufy, New York, 1989, p. 158).