Ambroise vollard biography

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Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939)

 

As a result, Vollard's gallery - his 'cellar' as it was called - became the most brilliant centre of avant garde art in Paris, and a magnet for famous painters and pioneering collectors including: Gertrude and her brother Leo Stein, the Russian Ivan Morozov, Henry Osborne Havemeyer, the American Dr Albert Barnes (of the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania), and the King of Serbia. His gallery was also a meeting point for many members of the Ecole de Paris, as well as numerous cultured bohemians of Paris, who clamoured for invitations to his creole curry dinners.

Note: for Parisian collectors like Ambroise Vollard, the main annual art shows included the official Salon, the Salon des Independants (from 1884), the Salon d'Automne (from 1903) and the very occasional Salon des Refuses (1863, 1874, 1875 and 1886).

An indication of Vollard's status can be gleaned from the fact that his portrait was painted once by Cezanne, Rouault and Dufy; twice by Pierre Bonnard; three times by Picasso; and four times by Renoir. Picasso himself once commented: "The most beautiful woman who ever lived never had her portrait painted, drawn, or engraved more often than Vollard." Several of these portraits can be seen at the Musee d'Orsay.

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Ambroise Vollard

Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was one of the most important dealers in French modern art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He had his portrait painted by so many artists that Picasso said "The most beautiful woman who ever lived has never had her portrait painted, drawn, or engraved any oftener than Vollard".^[1]

In most cases he bought art directly from the painters of his day. He was the first owner of Cézanne's Vue sur l'Estaque et le Chateau d'If. This sold at Christie's in London for £13,522,500 in February 1015.^[2]

He sold these almost unknown artists, who became world-famous. They included Paul Cézanne,^[3]Aristide Maillol, Renoir, Louis Valtat, Pablo Picasso,^[3]André Derain, Georges Rouault, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. He was also an avid art collector and publisher.

Background

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After graduation, Vollard became a collector-dealer in art. In 1893, he started his own art gallery, at Rue Laffitte, then the center of the Parisian market for modern art. There Vollard put on his first major exhibition: Manet and others were followed by Gauguin and Van Gogh (4 – 30 June 1895).

Not attractive in appearance, he was a very shrewd business