Charles Sedelmeyer (30 April 1837, Vienna – 9 August 1925, Paris) was an Austrian and French art dealer, collector, and publisher active in Paris from 1866, with premises at 6 rue de la Rochefoucauld. He is credited with popularising the Dutch artist Jan van Goyen in France. Sedelmeyer assessed the American market as important enough to send his

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''Atalanta and Meleager'' from the Marlborough collection for exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the winter of 1886.

Mihály Munkácsy

Though specialized in old masters, Sedemeyer became friends with the artist Mihály Munkácsy, who lived in Paris from 1872 onwards. Sedelmeyer bought and sold Mihaly Munkácsy's 1878 ''The Blind

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

Dictating

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

to his Daughters,'' and after doing so offered Munkácsy a ten-year contract, making that painter a wealthy man and a really established member of the Paris art world. Sedelmeyer wanted him to paint large-scale pictures which could be exhibited on their own. They decided that a subject taken from the Bible would be most suitable. In 1882 Munkácsy painted ''Christ before Pilate'' which was followed by ''Golgotha'' in 1884. The trilogy was completed by '' Ecce Homo'' in 1896. These huge paintings were taken on a tour and exhibited in many European cities and also in the US. All three were bought by

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millionaire

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Rembrandt

A public dispute with Dr. Abraham Bredius over the attribution to

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

of the ''Woman Taken in Adultery'' sold by Sedelmeyer to the Weber collection resulted in Sedelmeyer's justificatory pamphlet, 1912."On The Woman Taken in Adultery of the Weber Collection", ''

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'', 22 No. 119 (February 1913:287). The painting was shown in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the attribution was confirmed by

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. The Rembrandt attribution was again confirmed by

Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...

in 1914, who noted that it was purchased from Sedelmeyer by T. B. Walker. The painting was deaccessioned by the Walker Art Center in 2011.

Frans Hals

A small Hals sketch of a man from his "wet on wet" traveller series is dated 1643 and surprised Hals expert Seymour Slive for having a date, as most of these small portrait sketches were lacking them. He noticed that it had been in the possession of Sedelmeyer and Munkácsy and remarked that though Hals was very popular among the late 19th-century artists, this was the only painting that had been actually owned by one, as far as he knew.Catalog record 151, Slive catalogue raisonné of Hals paintings, 1974 He speculated that he would not be surprised if it came to pass that copies by Munkácsy were discovered of Dutch 17th-century realists, since he seemed to acquire so much inspiration from them. Slive also noted that Sedelmeyer sold "dozens of paintings rightly and wrongly attributed to Hals".

Personal life

He had five daughters. Emilie married the sculptor and art historian

Stanislas Lami Stanislas Lami (30 November 1858 – 31 January 1944) was a French sculptor and art historian. Life He was born in Paris, the son of Marie Bidauld and the sculptor Alphonse Lami. On 24 June 1891 he married Émilie, the daughter of Austrian Charl ...

and Hermina married the Czech painter Václav Brožík. Sedelmeyer's collection was dispersed at a series of sales in Paris.

Works

*''Catalogue of the celebrated Collection of Paintings, by Modern and Old Masters, and of Water-Colours and Drawings, formed by M. E. Secretan, sold at Sedelmeyer's Galleries, Paris, July, 1889'' *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1894 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the second Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1895 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the third Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1896 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the fourth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1897 * Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated catalogue of 300 paintings by old masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English schools, being some of the principal pictures which have at various times formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery'', 1898 Illustrated catalogue of 300 paintings by old masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English schools, being some of the principal pictures which have at various times formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery
on archive.org *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the fifth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1899 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the sixth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1900 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the seventh Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1901 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the eighth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1902 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the ninth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1905 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the tenth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1906 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the eleventh Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1911 *Charles Sedelmeyer, ''Illustrated Catalogue of the twelfth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French and English Schools'', Paris 1913

Notes

Sources

* B. Wild, ‘Charles Sedelmeyer: Ein österreichischer Kunsthändler macht Karriere in Paris’, Parnass 14, no. 3 (1994), pp. 76–80 (cite
here
* C. Huemer, 'Charles Sedelmeyer (1837–1925): Kunst und Spekulation am Kunstmarkt in Paris', Belvedere: Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 2 (Fall 1999), pp. 4–19. * C. Huemer, 'Charles Sedelmeyer's Theatricality: Art and Speculation in Late 19th-Century Paris', Ján Bakoš (ed.) Artwork through the Market: The Past and the Present, Bratislava: Slowakische Academy of Sciences 2004, pp. 109–124. * M. Theinhardtová, ‘Charles Sedelmeyer a Václav Brozík, cesky malír historie v Parízi’ (Charles Sedelmeyer and Václav Brozík; a Czech painter of history in Paris), in Václav Brozík (1851–1901), Národní galerie v Praze. Valdstejnská jízdárna (Prague, 2003), pp. 111–29. * C. Huemer, 'Crossing Thresholds: The Hybrid Identity of Late Nineteenth-Century Art Dealers', Jaynie Anderson (ed.) Crossing Cultures: Conflict-Migration-Convergence, Melbourne: Miegunyah Press 2009, pp. 1007–1011.

External links

Collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings by old masters, owned by Mr. Charles Sedelmeyer
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1886 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sedelmayer, Charles 19th-century Austrian people 20th-century Austrian people Austrian art collectors Austrian art dealers Austrian art historians Writers from Vienna 1837 births 1925 deaths Burials at Montmartre Cemetery