Born into a large family at Le Havre, France, Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) achieved fame as a painter and textile designer. Early in his career, Dufy was closely identified with the Fauvist movement, but later moved away from this association. In the first decade of the 20th century, Dufy branched into printmaking, textile design and illustration, creating print fabrics and illustrating for books and journals, including Jean Cocteau's, Le Mot, Fernand Fleuret's Friperies, and Apollinaire's Bestiaire. Dufy's friendship with Cocteau led to set design commissions for the theater and ballet. From the 1920s on, Dufy's work was exhibited internationally, while he continued experimenting with his painting technique, as well as designing fabrics and tapestries, illustrating, designing for the stage, and even venturing into ceramics and furniture design. Dufy died in France in 1953. Later the same year, the Musée National d’Art Moderne de Paris produced an extensive retrospective of his work.