Amphitrite

Amphitrite, at the Musée d'art moderne in Saint-Étienne, is one of Dufy's mythological paintings from around 1935, in which the sea goddess presides over a maritime world that naturally suited his love of water and spectacle. Dufy's engagement with mythology was characteristically light-handed — Amphitrite is neither heroic nor tragic but cheerful and decorative, at home in the same visual world as his regatta paintings. His marine subjects consistently link the classical sea deities to the contemporary pleasures of sailing, swimming, and watching the ocean.

Dufy renders Amphitrite in the swirling, rhythmic manner he brought to all his sea subjects — figure, waves, and marine atmosphere integrated through curving drawn lines over colour washes. The blues and aquamarines of the sea environment are handled with particular chromatic richness, making full use of the transparency effects available in his thin paint technique.