Guy Pène Du Bois

1884–1958

Guy Pène Du Bois studied under the Ashcan School painter Robert Henri, but rather than following his teacher’s exhortation to paint ordinary people and places, Du Bois gravitated toward high society. His portraits of chic flappers, elegant matrons, and powerful businessmen capture the glamour, complacency, and disquiet of New York during the Roaring Twenties. With a satirist’s eye for social foibles and pretensions, Du Bois depicted the affluent at leisure— at art galleries, racetracks, cafés, and the theater.

Opera Box, a canvas of unprecedented scale and ambition in the artist’s oeuvre, takes place at one of his favorite haunts. Du Bois worked for several years as a music critic and frequently attended the opera, where he was captivated as much by the stylish operagoers as by the performances themselves. The statuesque woman featured in the painting, impassive and regal in demeanor, looks down from an upper tier of the house and seems lost in thought, isolated from the audience around her. Her solitude and inaccessibility are reinforced by the monumental, cylindrical forms of her body as well as by the stark contrast of her white skin and dress against the shadowy background. The woman appears almost as if on stage herself, but whether she is consciously posing for the admiration of others or has been caught unawares in a momentary expression of ennui is unclear. With her masklike visage and stylized physique, the graceful protagonist of Opera Box—which Du Bois described as “the most important picture I have ever made”— remains an enigma.

Wikipedia entry

Introduction

Guy Pène du Bois (January 4, 1884 – July 18, 1958) was a 20th-century American painter, art critic, and educator. Born in the U.S. to a French family, his work depicted the culture and society around him: cafes, theatres, and in the twenties, flappers.

Wikidata identifier

Q5622550

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 13, 2025.

Getty record

Introduction

Comment on works: genre

Roles

Artist, genre artist, owner, painter, writer

ULAN identifier

500120494

Names

Guy Pène Du Bois, Guy Pène du Bois, Du Bois, Gay P. Du Bois, Guy Du Bois, Guy Pene Du Bois, Guylene Du Bois, Guy Pène Du Boys, Guy Pène DuBois, Guy Pene Dubois, Guylene Dubois, Guy Pene-Dubois, Gay P. du Bois, du bois guy pierre, guy pene dubois, guy pene du bois

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 13, 2025.

Not on view

First acquired
1931

Date of birth
January 4, 1884

API
artists/383