Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) "Le Bœuf sur le toit" (1920)

Acquired as the image for Kammermusiktage Homburg 2024 

"Le Bœuf sur le toit" (1920)
after Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)
Chromolithograph
On paper
Framed
37 cm x 47 cm (sheet)
51.8 cm x 62.3 cm (Framed)

Provenance: 
Christian Tiercin, Paris (Stamp Verso)

Lettered within the image, "Album de la Vogue Musicale, Planche no. 1" (lower left) "and "Edouard Dupont, éditeur" (lower right). The title "LE BOEUF SUR LE TOIT / PAR DUFY" beneath the image.

An image after an original by Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) depicting a scene from the celebrated avant-garde ballet "Le Bœuf sur le toit" (The Ox on The Roof) written and staged by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) in Paris in 1920. The ballet, for which the dancers wore giant painted papier-mâché heads, was an extraordinary satire of Parisian underworld subculture and was set in a fictional bar which gave its name to the production. In due course a celebrated Parisian café/cabaret-bar Le Bœuf sur le toit opened in 1921 (named after its fictional counterpart) which became a meeting-place for Cocteau and his associates and was originally located at 28 rue Boissy d'Anglas, near the Place de la Concorde.

This image of Raoul Dufy's illustration of one of the key scenes of Jean Cocteau's ballet originally appeared as Planche n° 1 (Print No.1) in the Album de la Vogue Musicale, published by Edouard Dupont. A similar lithograph hung on the wall of the real Le Boeuf sur le Toit in the 1920's.

This print here is an extremely accurate facsimile of the original and was probably produced in conjunction with the exhibition "Au Temps du “Boeuf sur le Toit” 1918–1928" (May-July 1981, Centre d’Art Plastique Contemporain Artcurial, 9 avenue Matignon, Paris).

Beautifully presented, triple mounted with a red insert all within in a red lacquered frame.