Fishing (Design for fabric) 1919

Raoul Dufy designed "Fishing (Design for fabric)," currently held at the Art Institute of Chicago, to be printed on fabric. Dufy was a French Fauvist painter and his designs often reflect the cultural milieu of early 20th-century France. The pattern depicts men fishing amidst dense foliage, evoking a sense of leisure and pastoral life. One might consider this artwork in light of France's colonial history, where the romanticization of labor often masked the exploitation of colonized peoples. Dufy’s vision of labor is, in a sense, a fiction, creating a pleasing aesthetic that obscures underlying social and economic realities. The repeated pattern aestheticizes everyday life, turning work into decor. Dufy’s fabric design offers a moment to contemplate the intersections of art, labor, and representation, and invites us to consider whose stories are told and whose are obscured within these idyllic scenes.