Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...

who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotional support to numerous then-unknown artists, including

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

,Cooper, Philip. ''Cubism''. London: Phaidon, 1995, p. 48. Aristide Maillol,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

, Louis Valtat,

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. I ...

Georges Rouault Georges Henri Rouault (; 27 May 1871, Paris – 13 February 1958) was a French painter, draughtsman and print artist, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. Childhood and education Rouault was born in Paris into a po ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

, and

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

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

Biography

Born in

Saint-Denis, Réunion Saint-Denis (, , unofficially Saint-Denis de La Réunion for disambiguation; ) is the prefecture (administrative capital) of the French overseas department and region of Réunion, in the Indian Ocean. It is located at the island's northernmos ...

, he was raised in the French

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

colony. After his matura (final exams) in La Réunion, he went to study

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

in France from 1885, for a while in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, then at the École de droit in Paris, where he received his degree in 1888. During his studies, Vollard converted himself into an "amateur-merchant" by becoming a clerk for an art dealer, and in 1893 established his own art gallery, at Rue Laffitte, then the center of the Parisian market for contemporary art. There Vollard mounted his first major exhibitions, buying almost the entire output of Cézanne, some 150 canvases, to create his first exhibition in 1895. This was followed by exhibitions of Manet,

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...

and

(4 – 30 June 1895); for

Gabriel Mourey Marie Gabriel Mourey (23 September 1865 – 10 February 1943) was a French novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, translator and art critic. Biography Gabriel Mourey was born 23 September 1865 in Marseille, the son of Louis-Félix Mourey, a dru ...

, French correspondent of '' The Studio'' in Paris, this was simply a matter of " Scylla and Charybdis". These were followed by a second Cézanne exhibition (1898), the first Picasso exhibition (1901) and a

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

exhibition (1904). Much has been made of his physical appearance and countenance (grimly described as a "large, gruff, boorish fellow" with "downcast eyes..."); however, he was also a very shrewd businessman who made a fortune with the "buy low, sell high" mantra. His clients included

Albert C. Barnes Albert Coombs Barnes (January 2, 1872 – July 24, 1951) was an American chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, and educator, and the founder of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.“Biographical Note,” Albert C. Barne ...

, Henry Osborne Havemeyer, Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo Stein. A digital archive consisting of materials from the Galérie Vollard (1893–1939) and the archives of his publishing house ''Ambroise Vollard, éditeur'' (1895–1939) was published by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute. Cezanne Ambroise Vollard

Having put on the first

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

exhibition, in 1930 Vollard commissioned Picasso to produce a suite of 100 etchings which became known as the ''

Vollard Suite The ''Vollard Suite'' is a set of 100 etchings in the neoclassical style by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, produced from 1930-1937. Named after the art dealer who commissioned them, Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), the suite is in a number of mu ...

''. An earlier ''Vollard Suite'' was commissioned from

in 1898–99, a smaller group in

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

and monotype, which Vollard did not like. Vollard would later write biographies of Cézanne (1914), Degas, and Renoir. In 1937 he published his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, ''Recollections of a Picture Dealer''.

Publisher of prints

In 1890 Vollard opened a gallery in Paris, where he exhibited the work of artists such as

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

and

. In 1901 he organized the first exhibition of works by

. Vollard was especially concerned with promoting the work of marginal artists, artists rejected by the official salons. His success in the sale of paintings allowed him to subsidize editions of prints purely out of personal interest, since they rarely brought him profits. He was also concerned about the quality of the productions, always trying to have the best materials and the best technicians: for

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

he relied especially on Blanchard, for

s on Tony Beltrand and for etchings and

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

s on Louis Fort. Among his collaborators,

Auguste Clot Auguste Clot (1858–1936) was a French printer based in Paris and known for his lithographic work with artists including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Rodin and Edvard Munch. Clot was born in Paris in 1858. He began ...

stands out, an expert printmaker who knew how to remain in the shadow of the artists but whose technical work was indispensable to achieve the quality levels of the albums published by Vollard, with whom he collaborated for thirty years. Most of Vollard's production focused on

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

s for collectors, made by the best artists of the day. His first editions were based on prints purchased from artists that had already been printed or published, for example the Gauguin zincographs exhibited at the Café Volpini in 1889, which Clot printed again in 1894. But from then on he devoted himself above all to directly commissioning artists to provide him with prints: such was the case of his first album, ''Quelques Aspects de la Vie de Paris'', by

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...

, produced in 1895 in Clot's workshop, of which one hundred numbered impressions were published and signed by the artist. The following year he published ''L'Album des peintres-graveurs'', in which artists such as

Albert Besnard Paul-Albert Besnard (2 June 1849 – 4 December 1934) was a French painter and printmaker. Biography Besnard was born in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, studied with Jean Bremond and was influenced by Alexandre Cabanel. He wo ...

, Jacques Émile Blanche,

, Maurice Denis,

Henri Fantin-Latour Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 – 25 August 1904) was a French painter and lithography, lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers. Biography He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodo ...

Armand Guillaumin Armand Guillaumin (; February 16, 1841 – June 26, 1927) was a French impressionist painter and lithographer. Biography Early years Born Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in Paris, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending eveni ...

, Hermann-Paul,

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolism (arts), symbolist painter, printmaker, Drawing, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he ...

József Rippl-Rónai József Rippl-Rónai (23 May 1861 – 25 November 1927) was a Hungarian painter. He first introduced modern artistic movements in the Hungarian art. Biography He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to ...

Théo van Rysselberghe Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 13 December 1926) was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century. Biography Early years Born i ...

Jan Toorop Johannes Theodorus 'Jan' TooropJan Toorop

Félix Vallotton Félix Édouard Vallotton (; December 28, 1865December 29, 1925) was a Swiss and French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as . He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. He painted portra ...

and Édouard Vuillard. In the second album, in 1897, some of these artists repeated, and participated for the first time

Edmond Aman-Jean Edmond Aman-Jean (13 January 1858, Chevry-Cossigny – 25 January 1936, Paris) was a French symbolist painter, who co-founded the Salon des Tuileries in 1923. Life His father was the owner and operator of an industrial lime kiln. He had hi ...

Eugène Carrière Eugène Anatole Carrière (16 January 1849 – 27 March 1906) was a French Symbolist artist of the fin-de-siècle period. Carrière's paintings are best known for their near-monochrome brown palette and their ethereal, dreamlike quality. He ...

Georges de Feure Georges de Feure (real name Georges Joseph van Sluijters, 6 September 1868 – 26 November 1943) was a French painter, theatrical designer, and industrial art designer in the symbolism and Art Nouveau styles. De Feure was born in Paris. His fa ...

, Eugène Grasset,

Henri Martin Henri Martin may refer to: *Henri Martin (historian) (1810–1883), French historian *Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943), French impressionist painter *Henri Martin (French politician) (1927–2015), French communist leader *Henri Martin (Am ...

, Lucien Pissarro,

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French people, French Painting, painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Soci ...

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

Ker-Xavier Roussel Ker-Xavier Roussel (10 December 1867 – 6 June 1944) was a French painter associated with Les Nabis. Biography Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle in 1867, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; alon ...

, Alfred Sisley,

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

and

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

. Another field of publishing for Vollard was the illustrated book for bibliophiles, of which he promoted twenty-two projects between 1900 and 1939. Vollard always selected the artist, whom he sometimes let select the text he would like to illustrate. His first edition was ''Parallèlement'' by Paul Verlaine, illustrated by Pierre Bonnard, which was a commercial failure, as was the next, '' Daphnis and Chloe'', also by Bonnard. Made in lithography, for the next edition he opted for the woodcut, more appreciated by collectors: ''

Imitation of Christ In Christian theology, the imitation of Christ is the practice of following the example of Jesus.''A concise dictionary of theology'' by Gerald O'Collins, Edward G. Farrugia 2004 page 115''Imitating Jesus: an inclusive approach to New Testament ...

'', illustrated by Maurice Denis, was a sales success. Among his subsequent editions, the following stand out: ''Les Amours'' by

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of C ...

(1915, Émile Bernard), '' Les Fleurs du mal'' by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

(1916, Bernard), ''Œuvres de maistre François Villon'' (1919, Bernard), ''Les Petites Fleurs de Saint François'' (1928, Bernard), ''Les âmes mortes'' by

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

(1924-1925,

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

), ''Les Fables'' by La Fontaine (1926-1931, Chagall), ''La Belle Enfant ou L'Amour à quarante ans'' by Eugène Montfort (1930, Raoul Dufy), ''L'Ancien Testament'' (1931-1939, Chagall). Émile_Bernard_Fleurs_du_mal

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, due to the difficulty in finding quality materials, he had to resort to photoengraving for some of his editions. Even so, he achieved quality results, especially thanks to the collaboration of Georges Rouault. Vollard's first collaboration with this artist took place in 1912, when Rouault offered him to edit a ''Miserere'' on which he was working; Vollard bought it in exchange for illustrating a book written by the dealer himself, ''Les Réincarnations du Père Ubu'', which would not see the light until 1932. The ''Miserere'' (1916-1927) is one of the most original and creative series of prints of the early 20th century, in which the artist combined different techniques: the drawing was transferred to copper plates by means of

heliogravure Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) an ...

, on which Rouault worked with acid and etching tools, achieving unique tones and values in the history of engraving. The final result did not satisfy Vollard, however, who considered it unsaleable; Rouault had to sue his heirs to get the plates, and the series was finally published in 1948. In the 1920s, Vollard resumed publishing original prints, publishing works by

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Jules Flandrin, Tsuguharu Foujita, Aristide Maillol and Maurice de Vlaminck. His last two editions, before his death, were of works by Rouault: ''Cirque de l'étoile filante'' (1938) and ''Passioné'' (1939). Vollard Suite

Vollard's greatest success was undoubtedly his collaboration with

, which gave rise to one of the best known series of prints made in the century: the ''

''. In the 1920s, Picasso's relationship with Vollard grew close: a series of etchings made by Picasso in 1927 on the theme of the artist and his model was acquired by the dealer to illustrate ''

The Unknown Masterpiece ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

'' by Honoré de Balzac, published in 1931. It was then that Vollard commissioned a series of prints that the artist produced between 1930 and 1937, and which was published in 1939: the ''Vollard Suite''. It is a set of one hundred prints—most of them etchings and some drypoint—of diverse subject matter, divided into several sequences; the largest (about forty) revolve around the theme ''The sculptor's workshop'', centered on the relationship between a sculptor, his model and his work, an autobiographical reference in which the model is Marie-Thérèse Walter, his partner at the time; another group revolves around the theme of ''The Rape'', while there are several dedicated to the figure of ''The Minotaur'', among which stands out ''Blind Minotaur in the Dark'', considered one of the best of the series; there are also three portraits of Vollard. At the same time, in 1931 he illustrated for the publisher Albert Skira ''

The Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, ...

'' by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

. In 1935 he made ''

Minotauromachy ''Minotauromachy'' (''La Minotauromachie'') is a 19.5 by 27.4” etching and engraving created by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in Paris in 1935. The etching and resulting prints, literally entitled ''Minotaur Battle'', feature many compositional a ...

'', an etching with engraving, where he takes up again the figure of the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...

seen for example in ''

Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl ''Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl'' is a 1933 etching by Pablo Picasso. It is part of the ''Vollard Suite'' of 100 etchings (No. 93, Bloch 201, Baer 369). It is the first example among several works to be realized through the remaining part ...

'' from the ''Vollard Suite''. It is considered one of the stylistic precedents of ''

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

''. Between 1936 and 1937 he illustrated '' Historia natural'' by Buffon (published in 1942), again commissioned by Vollard, a set of thirty-one sugar-lift etchings in a realistic style. In 1937, he made ''

The Dream and Lie of Franco ''The Dream and Lie of Franco'' is a series of two sheets of prints, comprising 18 individual images, and an accompanying prose poem, by Pablo Picasso produced in 1937. The sheets each contain nine images arranged in a 3x3 grid. The first 14, in ...

'' (''Sueño y mentira de Franco''), a set of eighteen small vignette-like images etched on two copper plates (with aquatint), as a denunciation against the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

and

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

; a thousand copies were printed and sold at the

Spanish Pavilion The Spanish pavilion houses Spain's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals. Background Organization and building The pavilion was designed and built by Francisco Javier de Luque between 1921 and 1922. While ...

of the

Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mus ...

of that year.

Portraits

Vollard was depicted in numerous portraits in his lifetime, as a result of his relationships with many artists of the period and his influence on their careers. The first of these was '' Portrait of Ambroise Vollard'' painted by Cézanne in 1899. Other notable portraits include, ''

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard in a Red Headscarf ''Portrait of Ambroise Vollard in a Red Headscarf'' (French:''Ambroise Vollard au foulard rouge'') is an 1899 oil on canvas portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir of his art dealer Ambroise Vollard. The painting represents Renoir's late work period (1 ...

'' by Renoir in 1899, '' Portrait of Ambroise Vollard with a Cat'', painted by Pierre Bonnard c.1924, and '' Portrait of Ambroise Vollard'' painted by Pablo Picasso in 1910. Picasso opined that, "they all did him through a sense of competition, each one wanting to do him better than the others".

Death

With war approaching, Vollard set out in July 1939 from his cottage in

Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre (, literally ''Le Tremblay on Mauldre'') is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yvelines department An intentional community is a voluntary r ...

to travel to his mansion on the Rue Martignac, where he had stored 10,000 artworks. Nearing the junction to Pontchartrain, on a very wet road, his

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...

-driven

Talbot Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...

skidded and then somersaulted twice. Having fractured his

cervical vertebrae In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In ...

, there he lay with his chauffeur until found dead, aged 73, the following morning.

Art collection

After his death, Vollard's

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used. Overview An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...

was fellow dealer

Martin Fabiani Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Aust ...

, who was instructed to divide his collection between his heirs: Madelaine de Galea, an alleged mistress; and his brother Lucien. Due to the

Nazi invasion of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

, which started on 10 May 1940, Fabiani hurriedly shipped 560 paintings to the United States. They left on the ''SS Excalibur'' from

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal, but the ship was intercepted by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

on 25 September 1940. Designated "enemy property", the paintings were stored at the National Gallery of Canada in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Post-war, on 19 April 1949, the London prize court agreed to the release of the pieces to Fabiani, who returned the works to Vollard's sisters. In gratitude, the sisters donated all of the lithographs by Rouault and

Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

, and a single painting by

to the National Gallery of Canada. The remaining works soon started appearing on the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

commercial art gallery market, where they were quickly sold. Pierre-Auguste Renoir 106

Vollard's former secretary and protégé,

Erich Šlomović Erich Šlomović ( sr-Latn, Erih Šlomović, also known as Erich Chlomovitch) (1915–1942) was a Yugoslav art collector. He was an assistant and protégé of Ambroise Vollard. Early life Šlomović was born in Đakovo (Austro-Hungarian Empire) ...

, a young Serb with Jewish origins (b. 1915), had connections with Vollard, Fabiani, and Lucien Vollard from about 1938. He had often stated his wish to create a museum of French art collected by him in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Šlomović had amassed a collection of about 600 works, most of them prints or drawings, with a few important oil paintings, by a combination of exchange, gift, purchase, and donation. Vollard had put him in direct contact with the most prominent artists of the day and often asked him to act as agent for art selling or purchasing purposes. Beginning in 1940, Šlomović put about 200 works in storage in a bank vault, at a branch of the Société Générale in Paris. Returning home with about 450 works, he exhibited them in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1940. With the advance of German armies in Serbia, he went into hiding, along with his brother Egon, and his father and mother Roza. They placed the paintings in crates behind the wall of a farmhouse in the Southern Serbian village of Bacina. Šlomović, his brother and father were soon arrested, and, like many other Jews in occupied Serbia, killed by the Nazi Germans in 1942 in Belgrade. After the war the paintings were appropriated by the Yugoslav authorities. They have been shown officially only once, in 1989 in Belgrade and Zagreb under the name "Slomovic Collection." A legal battle is currently (2014) underway to determine the ownership of the Belgrade collection, including the Šlomović heirs, the Vollard beneficiaries, and the Serbian government. The Paris works were discovered in 1979 when the bank was allowed to open its vault to recover unpaid storage fees. An 11-year legal dispute ensued by the heirs of both Vollard and Šlomović, which delayed their resale. A court in Amiens, France, ruled in 1996 that the paintings stored in Paris were to be awarded to the Vollard estate. These were sold off by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in Paris and in London in June 2010, totaling 30 million euros in proceeds. These included a 1905 Derain painted at

Collioure Collioure (; ca, Cotlliure, ) is a commune in the southern French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. Geography The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast), in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissement ...

, as well as works by Mary Cassatt, Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, Picasso and Renoir.

Notes

References

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External links

Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant Garde
at www.artic.eduChicago Art Institute
Miscellaneous papers regarding Ambroise Vollard, 1890-1939
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California.
''Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Vollard (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vollard, Ambroise 1866 births 1939 deaths People from Saint-Denis, Réunion French art dealers French art critics French art collectors 19th-century art collectors 20th-century art collectors People from Réunion of French descent Road incident deaths in France French male non-fiction writers