Berthe Weill

Berthe Weill (Paris 1865 – 1951)^[1]^: 11 was a French art dealer who played a vital role in the creation of the market for twentieth century art with the manifestation of the Parisian Avant-Garde. Although she is much less known than her well-established competitors like Ambroise Vollard, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Paul Rosenberg, she may be credited with producing the first sales in Paris for Pablo Picasso^[2]^: 26 and Henri Matisse^[2]^: 26 and with providing Amedeo Modigliani with the only solo exhibition in his lifetime (see poster advertising the exhibition).

The impressive list of artists who made their way through her gallery and into the canon of modern art continues with names such as Raoul Dufy, André Derain, Maurice Vlaminck, Diego Rivera, Georges Braque, Kees van Dongen, Maurice Utrillo. Her role was also important in the early exposure and sales of women painters such as Suzanne Valadon, Emilie Charmy and Jacqueline Marval.^[3]

In 1933, Weill published her memoirs, an account of thirty years as an art dealer, from which many historical renditions quote. ^[4] Her gallery lasted until 1939 and notwithstanding the number of luminary artists that passed through her gallery, she remained poor and destitute her whole life and after her death was almost forgotten.

Recently, interest in Berthe Weill has become more significant^[2]. In 2007, Picasso’s portrait of Berthe Weill (1920) was designated a French national treasure^[5]^: 11. In 2009 her memoirs (1933) were republished ^[1] and a compilation of her gallery exhibitions^[5]; in 2011 the first study dedicated to her life and dealership was published.^[6]

Life and career

File:Berthe Weill portrait.jpg

Portrait of Berthe Weill with paintings in the background

Esther Berthe Weill was born in Paris into an Alsatian Jewish lower middle class family, one of seven children. As her parents were of modest means, Weill was placed as an apprentice in Mayer’s antique shop where she learned the business of the trade and acquired considerable knowledge, in particular, of eighteenth century engravings. This experience would serve well as she also met collectors, writers and other dealers.

Upon Mayer’s death, she opened a little shop in association with one of her brothers, but it did not last long (1897-1900). Under the influence of Roger Marx, a renowned art critic, she became very interested in the art of the new young painters^[7]^: 31.

In 1900, not long after Picasso arrived in Paris, she bought and sold several works producing Picasso’s first sales in Paris.

In 1901, with the help of Mañach, a young Spanish painting broker, and 375 francs, money earmarked for her dowry, she inaugurated “Galerie B. Weill” and dedicated it as a place for the young painters “Place aux Jeunes”, much to the chagrin of her family and the widow of Mayer; discovering new artists was risky business. Her gallery lasted until 1939.

In 1946, many painters who she had championed over the years came together and held an auction of their donated art work, the proceeds went to support Berthe Weill so she could live in some comfort for the last years of her life^[5]^: 11.

In 1948, the Republic of France recognized her as a Chevalier de Légion d’Honneur, for her contribution to Modern Art^[5]^: 11.

In 1951, at the age of 86 Weill died. Although she was recognized at some level during her lifetime, she was left with a legacy as either misunderstood or relegated to the footnotes of historical accounts of the period, until recent renewed interest emerged.

Artists

Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Manguin, Camoin, Raoul Dufy, Diego Rivera, Braque, Friesz, van Dongen, Utrillo, Puy, Metzinger, Modigliani, Rouault, Marie Laurencin, Suzanne Valadon, Emilie Charmy, Jacqueline Marval, Kisling, Flandrin, Leger, Pascin...

Collectors

File:Berthe Weill Poster.jpg

Early 1900s Poster depicting a nude artist and a man in top hat for a Berthe Weill exhibition

Adolphe Brisson, Literary Critic for Temps

Picasso’s first sales in Paris were three pastels on canvas depicting bull-fighting scenes, which Weill sold to him in 1900.

Arthur Huc, Director of La Dépêche de Toulouse. Weill sold Le Moulin de la Galette (1900) to Arthur Huc. According to John Richardson, Huc was "one of the most progressive collectors of the day”. Later this painting was bought by Justin Thannhauser who donated it to the Guggenheim Museum (NY) ^[8]^: 168.
Franz Jourdain, Architect of the Samaritaine Department Store, first president of the Salon d'Automne ; in 1902, Weill sold a Marquet to him ^[7]^: 31.
André Level, Head of the consortium of investors who, in 1904, began forming the Peau de l'Ours art collection of twentieth century art. In 1914, it was sold at auction and was notable for its "phenomenal financial success". "Weill claimed that three-quarters of the items in the collection were purchased from her gallery. Even if she exaggerated, there is no doubt that Level bought from her on a regular basis^[2]^: 26–27^[4]^: 194.
Gertrude and Leo Stein, American expatriates living in Paris who played a pivotal role in promoting and collecting avant-garde art
Olivier Saincère, Counsellor of State and future secretary general of the Élysée under Raymond Poincaré, one of Weill's first collectors.
Gustave Coquiot, French writer and art critic, collector of Maurice Utrillo.
Sergei Shchukin, Russian collector from Moscow^[8]^{: 389–393}.

References

^ ^a ^b Weill, Berthe, "Pan ! Dans L’œil ! Ou trente ans dans les coulisses de la peinture contemporaine 1900-1930", L’Échelle de Jacob, 2009 (Préface by François Roussier de la Tronche)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d FitzGerald Michael, "Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York", 1995, "[1]"
^ Perry Gill. “Women Artists and the Parisian avant-garde: Modernism and 'feminine' art, 1900 to the late 1920s", Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York”, 1995
^ ^a ^b Weill, Berthe. "Pan ! Dans L’œil! Ou trente ans dans les coulisses de la peinture contemporaine 1900-1930", Lipschutz, Paris 1933
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sanchez, Pierre, "Les expositions de la Galerie Berthe Weill (1901-1942) et de la Galerie Devambez (1907-1926) Repertoire des artistes et liste de leurs œuvres", II, L’Échelle de Jacob, Dijon, 2009
^ Le Morvan Marianne,"Berthe Weill 1865-1951 La petite galeriste des grands artistes", L'Écarlate, Orléans, 2011
^ ^a ^b Elderfield, John, "Fauvism: The “Wild Beasts” and Its Affinities", Exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, 1976
^ ^a ^b Richardson John, "A Life of Picasso: The Early Years, Vol. I, 1886-1906", Random House, 1991

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The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, comics, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines, such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts, also involve aspects of the visual arts, as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts, such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, and decorative art.

Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as applied or decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, crafts, or applied visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts. The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. In both regions, painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist and being the furthest removed from manual labour – in Chinese painting, the most highly valued styles were those of "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes. (Full article...)

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Head VI is an oil-on-canvas painting by Irish-born figurative artist Francis Bacon, the last of six panels making up his "1949 Head" series. It shows a bust view of a single figure, modeled on Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Innocent X. Bacon applies forceful, expressive brush strokes, and places the figure within a glass cage structure, behind curtain-like drapery. This gives the effect of a man trapped and suffocated by his surroundings, screaming into an airless void. But with an inverted pathos is derived from the ambiguity of the pope's horrifying expression—whose distorted face either screams of untethered hatred towards the viewer or pleads for help from the glass cage—the question of what he is screaming about is left to the audience.

Head VI was the first of Bacon's paintings to reference Velázquez, whose portrait of Pope Innocent X haunted him throughout his career and inspired his series of "screaming popes", a loose series of which there are around 45 surviving individual works. Head VI contains many motifs that were to reappear in Bacon's work. The hanging object, which may be a light switch or curtain tassel, can be found even in his late paintings. The geometric cage is a motif that appears as late as his 1985–86 masterpiece Study for a Self-Portrait—Triptych. (Full article...)

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Girl Playing a Jade Flute by Xue Susu, self-portrait

Xue Susu (Chinese: 薛素素; also known as Xue Wu (薛五), Xuesu (薛素), Sujun, among other pen names) (c.1564–1650? C.E.) was a Chinese courtesan during the Ming Dynasty. She was an accomplished painter and poet who was particularly noted for her figure paintings, which included many Buddhist subjects. Her works are held in a number of museums both in China and elsewhere. Her skill at mounted archery was commented upon by a number of contemporary writers, as were her masculine, martial tendencies; these were regarded as an attractive feature by the literati of the period.

She lived in Eastern China, residing for most of her life in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu districts. After a career as a celebrated courtesan in Nanjing, Xue Susu was married about four times. During her later life, she eventually opted for the life of a Buddhist recluse. (Full article...)

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