Jean Dufy was the younger brother of Raoul Dufy, brothers from a family of nine children. The Dufy family was very open to the arts, particularly to music. From the age of 14, Jean exhibited his artistic abilities which were encouraged by his brother Raoul, and Raoul’s friend A.E. Othon Friesz. Jean also painted theater sets. He enrolled in l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts du Havre, where he was taught by Raoul and then by Friesz and Georges Braque. However, Jean quit these studies to rejoin his brother in Paris who remained his true master for the rest of his life.
Jean had, at this period of his life, discovered much from travels to North Africa and other European cities. World War I, in which he was a horse-soldier, interrupted his activities for a while. In 1920, he exhibited his recent paintings, notably at the Salon d’Automne, of which he was a member. Along with Raoul, Jean was active in the decorative arts, especially in textiles and porcelains.
Inevitably, Jean Dufy’s work continues to be compared to that of his brother. Jean painted frequently in watercolor and ink. Like his brother, his subjects are often Paris, other French cities, country scenes, circuses, horse races, stages and orchestras. He played the classical guitar and was an amateur of jazz, which may account for his paintings exhibiting a more fluid rhythm revealed in deep blues, animated reds and greens, and yellows that tend to accentuate light.
Raoul Dufy often dissected each of the elements that he used in his compositions, often with humor or tenderness, if not with acuteness. Jean, on the other hand, was more sensitive to the entire panorama of the scene represented, i.e. the particularity, the individuality, the "hands on". Jean retired to his farm in the Loire River valley where he remained up until his death, continuing to paint the fresh, simple landscapes and subjects which were the love of his life.
