Galerie Georges Petit Adv Poster TS 84 031900

Georges Petit (11 March 1856 – 12 May 1920) 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 ...

, a key figure in the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

art world and an important promoter and cultivator of

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

artists.

Early career

Petit was the son of François Petit, who founded the firm of art dealers at 7, rue Saint-Georges (Paris) in 1846. Within just a few years, the ''Galerie François Petit'' was among the most powerful firms in the French art market. According to Robert Jensen in his book ''Marketing Modernism in Fin-de-Siecle Europe'', the auction house assumed, "multiple roles that ran the gamut from certifying the authenticity of the object, to guiding it through the hazards of the marketplace, to establishing its provenance and enlisting critics and historians to situate the artist's importance." Georges Petit inherited the firm, as well as a château and 3 million francs in 1877. He constructed a town house on the rue de Sèze. His annual expenses amounted to some 400,000 francs. That's what he spent to support his wife, children, mistress... and shooting expenses. Jensen quotes

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

as saying that the younger Petit was "more ambitious than his father… competitive to the point of wanting to ruin his rivals". Jensen continues, " etitwould wait… for the Americans to arrive in Paris every May. And what he bought for 10,000 francs, he sold for 40,000.

Impressionism

Petit began buying Impressionist works as early as 1878, when he served as an expert in the sales of works from the collections of Jean Victor Louis Faure and bankrupt former

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

patron,

Ernest Hoschedé Ernest Hoschedé (18 December 1837 – 19 March 1891) was a department store magnate in Paris.National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

(USA), this was at the end of the Impressionists' "lean years," and their works had already begun to find a market.

Rivalries and rise to prominence

Auction_Scene_-_Galerie_Georges_Petit,_Paris_(1911)_Gustave_Francois

Petit had an intense rivalry with art dealer

Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...

(1831–1922). Durand-Ruel took over his business from his father in 1865. The Petit and Durand-Ruel galleries had been the top two firms in Paris dating back to the 1850s. Paul Durand-Ruel was 25 years older than Petit and had become an advocate of the Impressionists as early as 1870. The gallery which Petit opened at 12, in 1881 was a popular

alternative exhibition space An alternative exhibition space is a space other than a traditional commercial venue used for the public exhibition of artwork. Often comprising a place converted from another use, such as a store front, warehouse, or factory loft, it is then made i ...

to the official

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

. Petit's gallery later relocated to 8, rue de Sèze in the heart of Paris. Petit made his private views into grand social occasions. He devised the series of ''Expositions internationales de Peinture'', the first of which was held in 1882.

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

sent his portrait of

Vernon Lee Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she wrote ...

to the inaugural event, a work which received decidedly mixed reviews. Sargent wrote, "it has been exhibited … and has consternated many people." These events attracted the likes of

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

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 ...

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 ...

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

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 ...

. Sisley held large retrospective exhibitions at the ''Galerie Georges Petit'' in the 1880s and 1890s. This was something of a coup for Petit, as Sisley had been previously associated with Durand-Ruel. In 1897, Petit exhibited 146 Sisley paintings and 5 of his pastels, covering the whole of his career. Two years later, just months after Sisley's death, the paintings remaining in Sisley's atelier were sold at auction by the ''Galerie Georges Petit'' to the benefit of his children.

"Formidable salesman"

The biography posted by the National Gallery of Art notes that, "Petit also dealt in

painters and handled the works of many successful and fashionable artists of the period, rivaling another Parisian dealer, Boussod & Valadon uccessors_to_Goupil_&_Cie.html" ;"title="Goupil_&_Cie.html" ;"title="uccessors to Goupil & Cie">uccessors to Goupil & Cie">Goupil_&_Cie.html" ;"title="uccessors to Goupil & Cie">uccessors to Goupil & Cie He enjoyed the reputation of being a 'formidable salesman', and most important Paris auctions... were held on his premises because the Hôtel Drouot accommodations were insufficient. This fact only increased his rivalry with Durand-Ruel, as Petit did not care to have his competitor officiate as 'expert' at public sales held in his gallery". Michael C. FitzGerald, writing in his book ''The Making of Modernism'', says that, "by the 1890s etit hadwrested many of the Impressionists from their first dealer, Durand-Ruel, and presented such important exhibitions as Monet's ''Morning on the Seine'' and Norman coast series. According to

, who knew the Parisian art world inside and out, Petit was the '

apotheosis Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...

' of dealers when the Impressionist market soared and competition among marchands... became intense." Petit held a number of auction sales on his premises, including the Narishkine collection in 1883, the Chocquet and Doria collections in 1889 and

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

' studio sale in 1918–19. In 1919, Petit convinced

Louis Dewis Louis Dewis (1872–1946) was the pseudonym of Belgian Post-Impressionist painter Louis DeWachter, who was also an innovative and highly successful businessman. He helped organize and managed the first department store chain. Early life He was b ...

, a Sunday painter from Bordeaux, to sell his substantial men's clothing business there and move to Paris, where Petit promised "to make him famous."Obituary of Louis Dewachter, ''Journal de Biarritz'' (

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...

, France), 17 December 1946Catalogue for Dewis Rediscovered (1998), Courthouse Galleries, Portsmouth, Virginia But just months after the

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

relocated, Petit died on May 12, 1920. The biographer at the Whistler Centre writes that Petit's ''Société internationale de Peinture'' was run on similar principles to the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provided ...

. Like the Grosvenor, it had an advisory body of artists (including Alfred Stevens,

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (24 July 1841 – 15 September 1920) was a Spanish painter from the Madrazo family of artists who worked in the Realistic style, although his later work shows signs of Rococo and Japanese influence. He was known pr ...

and

Giuseppe De Nittis Giuseppe De Nittis (February 25, 1846 – August 21, 1884)Efrem Gisella Calingaert. "De Nittis, Giuseppe." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 9 Aug. 2013. was one of the most important Italian painters of the 19th c ...

), but in fact was run by Petit alone. Other artists such as

Paul Baudry Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ran ...

Jozef Israëls Jozef Israëls (27 January 1824 – 12 August 1911) was a Dutch painter. He was a leading member of the group of landscape painters referred to as the Hague School and, during his lifetime, "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of ...

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

Ludwig Knaus Ludwig Knaus (5 October 1829 – 7 December 1910) was a German genre painter of the younger 7 Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography He was born at Wiesbaden and studied from 1845 to 1852 under Sohn and Schadow in Düsseldorf. His early ...

and

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (8 December 18159 February 1905) was a German Realism (arts), Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German ...

were also involved. According to the Whistler Centre, beginning in 1881, "the gallery was associated with print publishing and specialised in monochrome, very high quality reproductive engravings of paintings by contemporary artists such as

Félix Bracquemond Félix Henri Bracquemond (22 May 1833 – 29 October 1914) was a French painter, etcher, and printmaker. He played a key role in the revival of printmaking, encouraging artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro to use th ...

and

Marcellin Desboutin Marcellin Gilbert Desboutin ( Cérilly 26 August 1823 – 18 February 1902 Nice) was a French painter, printmaker, and writer. Desboutin always signed himself ''Baron de Rochefort.'' Biography Desboutin was born in Cérilly, Allier on 26 ...

". In 1887,

exhibited '' The Kiss'' and three figures from ''

The Burghers of Calais ''The Burghers of Calais'' (french: Les Bourgeois de Calais) is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, a French port on the English Cha ...

'' at the ''Galerie''. In 1889, Rodin and Monet held a joint exposition there, with Rodin showing 36 works. According to the August Rodin Project, the "Georges Petit exhibition sealed Rodin’s position as France’s premier sculptor and opened doors to collections and museums around the world." In the late 1880s, Petit turned down Louis-Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939) for an apprenticeship because he knew no foreign languages. Vollard would, himself, become a legendary art dealer... as well as an avid collector and noted publisher. Vollard played an important role in the careers of

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 ...

Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...

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 ...

, Rouault,

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

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 ...

The ''Galerie'' after Petit

After Petit's death, the ''Galerie Georges Petit'' was acquired by prominent art dealers/brothers Gaston and Josse

Bernheim-Jeune Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris. Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. The ...

and their partner Étienne Bignou. George Keller, who was establishing a relationship with

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

at this time, became director in 1929.

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 ...

held at large retrospective at the ''Galerie'' in 1931, the largest exhibition of his works in France to that date. In 1932, the ''Galerie'' hosted an important retrospective of the works of

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 ...

. Art historian Michael C. FitzGerald writes that, "displaying 225 paintings, seven sculptures, and six illustrated books, the exhibition was a blockbuster. Apart from sheer size, the show ranged across Picasso's career from 1900 to the early months of 1932."

FitzGerald The FitzGerald/FitzMaurice Dynasty is a noble and aristocratic dynasty of Cambro-Norman, Anglo-Norman and later Hiberno-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the ...

opines, "the ''Galerie George Petit'' was a paradigm of the new relationships among dealers and collectors that formed in the early thirties." He continues, "although bearing an illustrious name in the history of modern art, the gallery was far from its origins when the Picasso retrospective hung." The ''Galerie Georges Petit'' closed in 1933 and its assets were sold at auction.

Exhibitions

*1896 - 13me Exposition International

References

Sources

* Jensen, Robert, ''Marketing Modernism in Fin-de-Siecle Europe'', 1994; * Biography at th

National Gallery of Art USA
* O'Hare, Mary-Kate; ''John Singer Sargent and Modern Womanhood''; ''The Magazine Antiques''; 1 March 2006; * Stair Sainty Gallery;
giverny.org

Claude Monet virtual museum
; * FitzGerald, Michael C., ''The Making of Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art'', 1995;
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chronology of the Artist's Life (Rodin)
* Matisse, Henri and Jack D. Flam, ''Matisse on Art'', 1973;

* Dalí, Salvadore, ''The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí'', 1993.

External links

artnet.com
chronology on Alfred Sisley
Website of ''Hôtel Drouot''

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070728101028/http://www.bernheim-jeune.com/history.html Website of the ''Galerie Bernheim-Jeune''
Salvador Dali Surreal
* Dieterle family papers, Series X. Gallerie Georges Petit,

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, Los Angeles. Includes 378 glass negatives of Corot paintings, undated. {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Georges French art dealers Businesspeople from Paris 1856 births 1920 deaths