Raoul DUFY - Dufy organizes his departure for Perpignan.

Raoul DUFY (1877.1953)

Autograph letter signed to Madame Letourneaux.

Two pages in-4°. Stamped and canceled autograph envelope.

Aspet. February 13, 1945.

Taking refuge with Roland Dorgelès in Aspet, Dufy organizes his trip to Perpignan.

“Dear Moune, Thank you for bringing the flowers to Emilienne, but I did not send you enough, that is to say, you did not have enough left for your trouble. I'll send you a little extra for you. Of course our friend's car returning to Nice would be an amazing opportunity; the date would be fine too but I have to leave Aspet first. This afternoon I'm going to St Gaudens and will find out if I can count on the van for Perpignan. What embarrasses me is all these piles of luggage and even in a friend's car it would be excessive. Finally, I'm going to fix all this and I'll have to succeed. Emilienne sends me views of Vence which excite me. Yes, I think the house is ideal and I will have infinite pleasure knowing it and living there. See you soon dear Moune, I kiss you. Your Raoul Dufy. »

At the start of the Second World War, the painter Raoul Dufy took refuge in Céret, invited by the artist Pierre Brune. Suffering from painful polyarthritis which has disabled him since the mid-1930s, he was welcomed in Perpignan in the clinic of Doctor Pierre Nicolau, who soon took him in with his own family. Between 1940 and 1949, he stayed in the town of the Pyrénées-Orientales and created the luminous series in the workshops on rue Jeanne d'Arc and rue de l'Ange. It was also in Perpignan that he designed new tapestries in collaboration with Jean Lurçat and resumed his ceramic production with the potter Jean-Jacques Prolongeau.