MUSIQUE NEGRE (BANJO): DRYPOINT BY CHARLES DUFRESNEcirca 1921 Drypoint print by French artist Charles Dufresne depicts a reclining nude figure alongside a musician playing what appears to be a banjo or similar stringed instrument, rendered in loose, sketch-like lines typical of the artist's modernist style. Signed in pencil at the lower right and numbered 10 of an edition of 20, the artwork reflects the period's fascination with jazz-age musical themes and reclining figure studies. Unframed. plate: 9.5 x 12.25 inches; sheet: 15 x 21.5 inches $200-300
ARTIST PROFILE: Charles Dufresne (1876–1938) was a French painter, engraver, sculptor, and decorator, born on 23 November 1876 in Millemont and died on 8 August 1938 in La Seyne-sur-Mer, coming from a family of sailors and fishermen from Granville. He trained as an engraver before enrolling at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied engraving in the workshop of Hubert Ponscarme and later assisted the sculptor and medalist Alexandre Charpentier, though he ultimately felt more drawn to painting, producing early pastels of Parisian café-concerts and circus scenes. In 1910 he won the Prix de l'Afrique du Nord and spent two years in Algeria, an experience that sharpened his sense of color and sparked a lasting interest in exotic, Orientalist subject matter reminiscent of Delacroix. He served in World War I and, after being gassed, was transferred to the camouflage section under fellow painter André Dunoyer de Segonzac, during which time he produced Cubist-influenced war scenes. In 1921 he designed sets for the ballet Antar at the Opéra de Paris, and two years later co-founded the Salon des Tuileries; between 1921 and 1923 he also created Art Deco tapestry designs with Louis Süe and André Mare, shown at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.
