Rolf de Maré (9 May 1888 – 28 April 1964), sometimes called Rolf de Mare, was a Swedish

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

and leader of the

Ballets Suédois The Ballets suédois (; "Swedish Ballets") was a predominantly Swedish dance ensemble based in Paris that, under the direction of Rolf de Maré (1888–1964), performed throughout Europe and the United States between 1920 and 1925, rightfully ea ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1920–25. In 1931 he founded the world's first research center and museum for

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

in Paris.

Biography

Rolf de Maré was born in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

in 1888 as the son of diplomat Henrik de Maré and sculptor Ellen Roosval von Hallwyl. In 1912 he made friends with

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 a ...

painter Nils von Dardel who was not particularly well off, but imaginative and talented, while de Maré was enthusiastic and had money. In 1918, through Dardel, de Maré met

Jean Börlin Jean Börlin was a Swedish dancer and choreographer, who was born in Härnösand on 13 March 1893, and who died in New York on 6 December 1930. He worked with Michel Fokine, who was his teacher in Stockholm. Biography Jean Börlin was held in high ...

and de Maré became lover and protector of the Swedish dancer. De Maré created in 1920 the

at the

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...

in Paris of which Börlin was first dancer and choreographer. In the autumn of 1924 Giorgio de Chirico curated the scenography and costumes for Pirandello's La Giara. Börlin died in 1930 and in 1931, de Maré founded Les Archives internationales de la Danse (AID) in Paris in his memory, the world's first museum and research institute for

. The Archive became a famous centre for studies in dance and visitors came from all over the world to see exhibitions or to study in its vast library. The dance center also published its own magazine and books, arranged lecture demonstrations in the building which de Maré had constructed for his dance centre. After the

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the archives had grown too large for a private person to maintain, de Maré closed his business in Paris and donated parts of the collections — some 6,000 books, engravings and other items, all concerned mainly with Western dance — to the

French government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

which placed them at the museum and library of the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

. However, the museum declined to accept two substantial elements of de Maré's collection: firstly, material from the Ballets Suédois, and secondly, the fruits of his expedition of exploration to

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in 1936 — the first to have been undertaken with the purpose of documenting dance. Therefore, the collection from the Swedish Ballet in Paris and the non-European collections were brought by de Maré to Stockholm to form the Dance Museum, which he opened in 1953 in the basement of the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera () is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the centre of Sweden's capital, Stockholm, in the borough of Norrmalm (borough), Norrmalm, on the eastern si ...

in Stockholm. On his death he made the Dance Museum the sole heir to his fortune, and this enabled the museum to make further acquisitions. After dissolving the Ballets Suedois in 1925, de Maré made no attempt to revive its works. The various, concrete collectibles de Maré amassed and that exist today as the bedrock of Stockholm's Dance Museum, illuminate our picture of him as

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

and art collector, all the while they question his role as a ''connoisseur'' of a theater based on the art of dancing. Throughout his life, Rolf de Maré was also a distinguished art collector. In the early 1960s, he made an important donation of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

art to the

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

. Rolf de Maré died of a stroke in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in 1964.

References

*''Archives of the Dance: The Dance Museum, Stockholm'', in ''Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research'', Vol. 4, No. 2, 1986. *''At the Vanishing Point: Images of Dance in Archives and on Stage'', by Erik Näslund, at the International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts : 18th International Congress, Stockholm 3–7 September 1990.

External links

The Dance Museum in Stockholm
Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Mare, Rolf de 1888 births 1964 deaths Swedish art collectors Ballet impresarios Businesspeople from Stockholm Swedish gay men Swedish LGBTQ businesspeople Gay businessmen 20th-century Swedish LGBTQ people