Signed and dated ‘Jean Dufy/28’ upper left, oil on canvas
25 ½ x 21 ¼ in. (64.8 x 54cm)
Executed in 1928. 

Phillips Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida. 
Private Collection, New York.

Jean Bailly, Jean Dufy: Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre, Paris, 2002, Vol. 1, p. 338, no. 682 (illustrated).

While the subject of the present work is not unique in Jean Dufy’s oeuvre, a lone figure, and specifically a nude – whether seated, standing, or recumbent – is somewhat of a departure for the artist, as compared with much of his more favored subjects, which include Parisian views, circuses, orchestras, harbors, racetracks, and hunting scenes. Here a female nude sits before the viewer in an artist’s studio, cross-legged and clutching a cloth draped over her right shoulder. It is executed with the dynamic coloration and quick brushstrokes that characterize Dufy’s work. Following a fallout with his brother, the well-known painter Raoul Dufy, Jean lived much of his life in Loire where he lived with his wife, though he travelled and painted extensively. He also enjoyed a three-decade long career as a porcelain decorator in Limoges, working for Theodore Haviland.