Paul Guillaume (1891 in

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 ...

– 1934 in Paris) 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 ...

. Dealer of

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the ...

and

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...

, he was one of the first to organize

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, su ...

exhibitions. He also bought and sold many works from cutting-edge artists of the time, 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 ...

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, and

Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

Life

Being from modest origins, Paul Guillaume worked first in a garage in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

and then in his gallery in Paris. In his gallery he presented and sold especially the works of

, who painted several portraits of him. He found

African sculpture Most African sculpture was historically in wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than at most a few centuries ago; older pottery figures are found from a number of areas. Traditional African masks, Masks are importa ...

s which he displayed. This aroused the attention of

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

(whom he met in 1911), who in turn introduced him to many of the artists of the beginning of the century in France. He soon organized important exhibitions, such as the ''Première Exposition d’Art Nègre et d’Art Océanien'', on 13–19 May 1919, with a catalogue by Henri Clouzot and additional text by Apollinaire. Apollinaire, who died the previous year, had also collaborated with Paul Guillaume on the pioneering study ''Sculptures Nègres'' in 1917. This exhibition – drawn from Guillaume's private collection – placed

at the heart of

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. After his death, his wife Domenica married architect

Jean Walter Jean Walter, (Montbéliard, 1883, Dordives – 1957), was a French architect who mainly worked for public housing, hospital architecture, and condominiums . Life After his graduation in 1902 from the École Spéciale d'Architecture, he partic ...

and continued Guillaume's collection, selling his most "extreme" paintings and acquiring impressionist paintings. After her own death, this collection of 20th-century paintings became part of the

Musée de l'Orangerie The Musée de l'Orangerie ( en, Orangery Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as the pe ...

in Paris. Domenica was once accused of the murder of Paul Guillaume, who died early and suspiciously. Some speculate that she was cleared of all charges in exchange for giving the collection to the French state after her death.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillaume, Paul 1891 births 1934 deaths French art dealers French art collectors Art collectors from Paris