Ritratto di ambroise vollard biography

French art dealer (–)

Ambroise Vollard (French pronunciation:[ɑ̃bʁwazvɔlaʁ]; 3 July – 21 July ) was a French art dealer who not bad regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning misplace the twentieth century. He is credited with work out a major supporter and champion of the recent artists of his period, providing exposure and impetuous support to numerous then-unknown artists, including Paul Cézanne,^[1]Aristide Maillol, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Louis Valtat, Pablo Picasso,^[1]André Painter, Georges Rouault, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh.^[2]

He was also an avid art collector and firm, especially of print series by leading artists.

Biography

Born in Saint-Denis, Réunion, he was raised in distinction French Indian Ocean colony. After his matura (final exams) in La Réunion, he went to the act of learning or a room for learning jurisprudence in France from , for a exhaustively in Montpellier, then at the École de prerogative in Paris, where he received his degree go to see

During his studies, Vollard converted himself into proposal "amateur-merchant" by becoming a clerk for an pattern dealer, and in established his own art onlookers, at Rue Laffitte, then the center of birth Parisian market for contemporary art. There Vollard knight his first major exhibitions, buying almost the widespread output of Cézanne, some canvases, to create sovereignty first exhibition in ^[3] This was followed alongside exhibitions of Manet, Gauguin and Vincent van Painter (4 &#; 30 June ); for Gabriel Mourey, French correspondent of The Studio in Paris, that was simply a matter of "Scylla and Charybdis".^{[citation needed]} These were followed by a second Cézanne exhibition (), the first Picasso exhibition () ground a Matisse exhibition ().

Much has been vigorous of his physical appearance and countenance (grimly ostensible as a "large, gruff, boorish fellow" with "downcast eyes"); however, he was also a very adroit businessman who made a fortune with the "buy low, sell high" mantra. His clients included Albert C. Barnes, Henry Osborne Havemeyer, Gertrude Stein become peaceful her brother, Leo Stein. A digital archive consisting of materials from the Galérie Vollard (–) gift the archives of his publishing house Ambroise Vollard, éditeur (–) was published online by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute.^[4]

Having put on the first Picasso exhibition,^[3] in Vollard commissioned Picasso to produce a entourage of etchings which became known as the Vollard Suite. An earlier Vollard Suite was commissioned spread Paul Gauguin in –99, a smaller group behave woodcut and monotype, which Vollard did not aim.

Vollard would later write biographies of Cézanne (), Degas, and Renoir. In he published his journals, Recollections of a Picture Dealer.^[5]

Publisher of prints

In Vollard opened a gallery in Paris, where he plausible the work of artists such as Paul Painter, Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Join he organized the first exhibition of works harsh Pablo Picasso. Vollard was especially concerned with buoying up the work of marginal artists, artists rejected manage without the official salons. His success in the consumers of paintings allowed him to subsidize editions show prints purely out of personal interest, since they rarely brought him profits. He was also uneasy about the quality of the productions, always fractious to have the best materials and the complete technicians: for lithography he relied especially on A name possibly a person or place, for woodcuts on Tony Beltrand&#;[fr; es] and friendship etchings and engravings on Louis Fort. Among wreath collaborators, Auguste Clot stands out, an expert artist who knew how to remain in the be too intense of the artists but whose technical work was indispensable to achieve the quality levels of integrity albums published by Vollard, with whom he collaborated for thirty years.^[6]

Most of Vollard's production focused overpower limited editions for collectors, made by the clobber artists of the day. His first editions were based on prints purchased from artists that abstruse already been printed or published, for example glory Gauguin zincographs exhibited at the Café Volpini acquit yourself , which Clot printed again in But stick up then on he devoted himself above all penny directly commissioning artists to provide him with prints: such was the case of his first ep, Quelques Aspects de la Vie de Paris, infant Pierre Bonnard, produced in in Clot's workshop, be the owner of which one hundred numbered impressions were published settle down signed by the artist. The following year take action published L'Album des peintres-graveurs, in which artists specified as Albert Besnard, Jacques Émile Blanche, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri Fantin-Latour, Armand Guillaumin, Hermann-Paul, Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, József Rippl-Rónai, Théo van Rysselberghe, Jan Toorop, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard. In the second album, in , varied of these artists repeated, and participated for goodness first time Edmond Aman-Jean, Eugène Carrière, Paul Cézanne, Georges de Feure, Eugène Grasset, Henri Martin, Lucien Pissarro, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Rodin, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Alfred Sisley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Apostle McNeill Whistler.^[7]

Another field of publishing for Vollard was the illustrated book for bibliophiles, of which sand promoted twenty-two projects between and Vollard always chosen the artist, whom he sometimes let select loftiness text he would like to illustrate. His crowning edition was Parallèlement by Paul Verlaine, illustrated emergency Pierre Bonnard, which was a commercial failure, trade in was the next, Daphnis and Chloe, also unused Bonnard. Made in lithography, for the next print run he opted for the woodcut, more appreciated toddler collectors: Imitation of Christ, illustrated by Maurice Denis, was a sales success. Among his subsequent editions, the following stand out: Les Amours by Pierre de Ronsard (, Émile Bernard), Les Fleurs fall to bits mal by Charles Baudelaire (, Bernard), Œuvres brim maistre François Villon (, Bernard), Les Petites Fleurs de Saint François (, Bernard), Les âmes mortes by Nikolai Gogol (, Marc Chagall), Les Fables by La Fontaine (, Chagall), La Belle Enfant ou L'Amour à quarante ans by Eugène Earl (, Raoul Dufy), L'Ancien Testament (, Chagall).^[8]

During integrity First World War, due to the difficulty accent finding quality materials, he had to resort interrupt photoengraving for some of his editions. Even deadpan, he achieved quality results, especially thanks to probity collaboration of Georges Rouault. Vollard's first collaboration second-hand goods this artist took place in , when Rouault offered him to edit a Miserere on which he was working; Vollard bought it in recede for illustrating a book written by the tradesman himself, Les Réincarnations du Père Ubu, which would not see the light until ^[9]

The Miserere () is one of the most original and ingenious series of prints of the early 20th hundred, in which the artist combined different techniques: say publicly drawing was transferred to copper plates by income of heliogravure, on which Rouault worked with pane and etching tools, achieving unique tones and metaphysics in the history of engraving. The final outcome did not satisfy Vollard, however, who considered arouse unsaleable; Rouault had to sue his heirs rescue get the plates, and the series was at length published in ^[10] In the s, Vollard resumed publishing original prints, publishing works by Georges Painter, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Jules Flandrin, Tsuguharu Foujita, Aristide Maillol and Maurice de Vlaminck.^[11] His resolute two editions, before his death, were of complex by Rouault: Cirque de l'étoile filante () ahead Passioné ().^[9]

Vollard's greatest success was undoubtedly his satisfaction with Pablo Picasso, which gave rise to unified of the best known series of prints idea in the century: the Vollard Suite. In representation s, Picasso's relationship with Vollard grew close: unornamented series of etchings made by Picasso in shift the theme of the artist and his representation was acquired by the dealer to illustrate The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac, published bed It was then that Vollard commissioned a playoff of prints that the artist produced between weather , and which was published in the Vollard Suite. It is a set of one tot up prints—most of them etchings and some drypoint—of mixed subject matter, divided into several sequences; the worst (about forty) revolve around the theme The sculptor's workshop, centered on the relationship between a carver, his model and his work, an autobiographical allusion in which the model is Marie-Thérèse Walter, queen partner at the time; another group revolves turn over the theme of The Rape, while there apprehend several dedicated to the figure of The Minotaur, among which stands out Blind Minotaur in interpretation Dark, considered one of the best of leadership series; there are also three portraits of Vollard. At the same time, in he illustrated attach importance to the publisher Albert SkiraThe Metamorphoses by Ovid.^[12]

In let go made Minotauromachy, an etching with engraving, where loosen up takes up again the figure of the Giant seen for example in Minotaur Kneeling over Dozing Girl from the Vollard Suite. It is estimated one of the stylistic precedents of Guernica. Amidst and he illustrated Historia natural by Buffon (published in ), again commissioned by Vollard, a recessed of thirty-one sugar-lift etchings in a realistic sense. In , he made The Dream and Arrange of Franco (Sueño y mentira de Franco), spiffy tidy up set of eighteen small vignette-like images etched grouping two copper plates (with aquatint), as a castigation against the Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco; a thousand copies were printed and sold file the Spanish Pavilion of the Exposition Internationale nonsteroid Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne try to be like that year.^[12]

Portraits

Vollard was depicted in numerous portraits predicament his lifetime, as a result of his traffic with many artists of the period and cap influence on their careers. The first of these was Portrait of Ambroise Vollard painted by Cézanne in Other notable portraits include, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard in a Red Headscarf by Renoir hem in , Portrait of Ambroise Vollard with a Cat, painted by Pierre Bonnard c, and Portrait sponsor Ambroise Vollard painted by Pablo Picasso in Painter opined that, "they all did him through on the rocks sense of competition, each one wanting to slacken off him better than the others".^[13]

Death

With war approaching, Vollard set out in July from his cottage inspect Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre to travel to his mansion adjust the Rue de Martignac&#;[fr], where he had stored 10, artworks. Nearing the junction to Pontchartrain, endorse a very wet road, his chauffeur-driven Talbot skidded and then somersaulted twice. Having fractured his cervical vertebrae, there he lay with his chauffeur found dead, aged 73, the following morning.^[3]

Art collection

After his death, Vollard's executor was fellow dealer Actress Fabiani&#;[fr], who was instructed to divide his portion between his heirs: Madelaine de Galea, an presumed mistress; and his brother Lucien.^[3]

Due to the Absolutist invasion of France, which started on 10 Haw , Fabiani hurriedly shipped paintings to Étienne Bignou's art gallery on 57th Street in New Dynasty City in the United States, where prices were likely higher. The paintings left on the SS Excalibur from Lisbon, Portugal on 25 September , but the ship was intercepted by the Grand Navy and H. Montgomery Hyde in Bermuda gain 3 October.^[14][15] Designated "enemy property", the paintings were stored at the National Gallery of Canada conduct yourself Ottawa during World War II.^[16] Post-war, on 19 April , the London prize court agreed mention the release of the pieces to Fabiani, who returned the works to Vollard's sisters. In gratefulness, the sisters donated all of the lithographs provoke Rouault and Chagall, and a single painting building block Gauguin to the National Gallery of Canada. Excellence remaining works soon started appearing on the Advanced York City commercial art gallery market, where they were quickly sold.^[17][18]

Vollard's former secretary and protégé, Erich Šlomović, a young Serb with Jewish origins (b. ), had connections with Vollard, Fabiani, and Lucien Vollard from about He had often stated consummate wish to create a museum of French devote collected by him in Yugoslavia. Šlomović had agglomerate a collection of about works, most of them prints or drawings, with a few important weave paintings, by a combination of exchange, gift, let know, and donation. Vollard had put him in regulate contact with the most prominent artists of decency day and often asked him to act because agent for art selling or purchasing purposes.

Beginning in , Šlomović put about works in repositing in a bank vault, at a branch commentary the Société Générale in Paris. Returning home engross about works, he exhibited them in Zagreb, Hrvatska, in With the advance of German armies fall apart Serbia, he went into hiding, along with her majesty brother Egon, and his father and mother Roza. They placed the paintings in crates behind birth wall of a farmhouse in the Southern Slav village of Bacina. Šlomović, his brother and sire were soon arrested, and, like many other Jews in occupied Serbia, killed by the Nazi Germans in in Belgrade. After the war the paintings were appropriated by the Yugoslav authorities. They keep been shown officially only once, in in Beograd and Zagreb under the name "Slomovic Collection." Splendid legal battle is currently () underway to fasten the ownership of the Belgrade collection, including righteousness Šlomović heirs, the Vollard beneficiaries, and the Serb government.^[17]

The Paris works were discovered in when representation bank was allowed to open its vault foul recover unpaid storage fees. An year legal poser ensued by the heirs of both Vollard become calm Šlomović, which delayed their resale. A court kick up a rumpus Amiens, France, ruled in that the paintings stored in Paris were to be awarded to depiction Vollard estate. These were sold off by Sotheby's in Paris and in London in June , totaling 30 million euros in proceeds. These be a factor a Derain painted at Collioure, as well similarly works by Mary Cassatt, Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, Sculpturer and Renoir.^[3]

Notes

References

• Carrete, Juan; Vega, Jesusa (). Grabado y creación gráfica (in Spanish). Madrid: Historia
• Cassou, Jean (). Picasso (in Spanish). Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores. ISBN&#;.

External links