Achille-Emile Othon Friesz (French1879-1949) — Dionysian Celebration, c. 1925

Ink, graphite, on thin paper; Estate-stamped lower right, “EOF”; Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, and attended school in his native city. It was while at the Lycée that he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy. They studied at the Le Havre School of Fine Arts in 1895-96, then went to Paris together for further study. In Paris, Friesz met Matisse, Marquet, and Rouault. Like them, he rebelled against the academic teaching of Bonnat becoming a member of “Les Fauves,” exhibiting with them in 1907.; During the last thirty years of his life, he painted in a style completely removed his earlier colleagues and contemporaries. Having abandoned the lively arabesques and brilliant colors of his Fauve years, Friesz returned to a more sober palette and to admiration for Poussin, Chardin, and Corot. He respected Cézanne’s ideas of logical composition, simple tonality, solidity of volume, and distinct separation of planes. A baroque flavor adds vigor to his figures.