La pelouse
This conversation is connected to La pelouse.
Dufy painted racing scenes from the 1920s until the end of his life — he first went to the races in 1922, partly to see how his textile designs looked on the elegant women in attendance. La pelouse dates from around 1950, near the end of his career, when rheumatoid arthritis had so damaged his hands that he had to fasten the brush to them to work. Horses and spectators mingle on the green of the paddock, drawn in fast calligraphic strokes of red, black, and blue over thin green washes. A woman in a polka-dot dress and another with a parasol stand among the horses, and the railing of the enclosure is barely sketched in white across the top. Everything is shorthand — a few marks for a top hat, a quick curve for a horse's neck.