Le Modèle hindou
This conversation is connected to Le Modèle hindou.
A nude woman lies on her back on white and lavender sheets, holding a polka-dotted fan in one hand. Her skin is painted in warm brown and ochre tones. Behind her, a horizontal band of bright red fabric patterned with white scrollwork and flowers in green, yellow, and dark blue runs across the upper third of the canvas. The sheets are painted with rapid black calligraphic marks. The composition is horizontal and immediate, the figure filling the canvas from edge to edge. The title, Le Modèle hindou, reflects the Orientalist framing common in 1920s French painting, though the painting itself is essentially a studio nude on patterned textiles. Dufy was deeply interested in textiles and pattern throughout his career, designing fabrics for the fashion house of Paul Poiret and for the Lyon silk manufacturer Bianchini-Férier from 1912 onward.