Berthe Weill

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House number 25 on rue Victor Massé, Weill's first gallery in 1901. Photo from 2009

Esther Berthe Weill (born November 20, 1865 in Paris , † April 17, 1951 in Paris) was a French art dealer and gallery owner . In 1901, she was the first woman to found a small gallery , the B. Weill Gallery , in Paris, which existed in various locations until 1939 and had around 140 exhibitions by 1933. Berthe Weill was one of the first to exhibit works by Pablo Picasso in 1902 . The young avant-garde artists she sponsored occasionally called her Mère Weill ("Mother Weill") orMerveille ("The Miracle"). In 1933 she published her autobiography.

life and work

Berthe Weill came from a middle-class Jewish-Alsatian family, she had six siblings. Weill is described as very small, 1.50 meters tall, very slender, blue eyes, very short-sighted, which is why she later wore glasses with large lenses instead of a lorgnon . She often wore a frock coat and black tie.

The first gallery

From around 1888 Weill worked as an employee of the Mayer antiquarian bookshop on rue Laffitte in Paris. The shop near the Grands Boulevards, on a street with many art shops, had renowned collectors as customers. After the death of her boss, she went into business for herself, initially in 1897 together with her brother Marcellin with a tiny shop and a capital of only 50 francs at 25, rue Victor Massé in the 9th arrondissement . In 1900 she got to know the works of the young, then unknown Spanish painter Pablo Picasso through the mediation of his first art dealer, Pere Mañach . She bought three pastel paintings with bullfighting motifs, including the Course de taureau , which was created in the same year .

On December 1, 1901, she founded the B. Weill gallery alone at 25, rue Victor Massé, which focused on the jeunes peintres , the young painters. Engravings by old masters and books were also offered. For lack of space, she hung the still damp paintings with clothespins on lines that had been pulled through the gallery. Her third exhibition in February 1902 showed works by Henri Matisse , Albert Marquet and Jacqueline Marval , among others . In April and June of that year she was the first gallery owner to sell Matisse's work.

An exhibition with 30 works by Pablo Picasso took place from April 1 to 15, 1902. The paintings on display included La chambre bleue (Le tub) and Courtisane au collier de gemmes , both from 1901.

After the exhibition in the Salon d'Automne in 1905, which caused a scandal and coined the term Fauvism , the next exhibition of the painters, now known as Fauves , took place from October 21 to November 20, 1905 in Weill's gallery. The exhibiting painters were Charles Camoin , André Derain , Raoul Dufy , Othon Friesz , Henri Manguin , Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse and Maurice de Vlaminck .

More locations and a scandal

Nu couché was among the nude pictures on display.
Amedeo Modigliani exhibition 1917 Berthe Weill

In 1917 the gallery moved into larger rooms at 50 rue Taitbout. On December 3rd - mediated by Leopold Zborowski - the vernissage of Amedeo Modigliani's first and only solo exhibition during his lifetime, who died in 1920, took place there. Among his 32 paintings and drawings there were about seven nudes, one of which was placed in the gallery's window. This fact led to a crowd in front of the shop window. An officer from the police station opposite became aware and asked the gallery owner to remove the pictures because they were too revealing. Berthe Weill's question has been handed down: Mais qu'ont-ils donc ces nus? (“What's wrong with these naked people?”) And the loud and threatening answer of the police inspector : Ces nus… ils ont des poils! ("These naked ... they are hairy!"). In order to prevent the pictures from being confiscated, Weill complied with the request to close the exhibition. The critic Francis Carco wrote in L'éventail on August 15, 1919 that the exhibition had reopened after the nudes had been removed. In 1920 she moved the gallery to 46 rue Laffitte, also in the 9th arrondissement.

Weill's memoirs and the fourth gallery

Weill's memoir Pan! dans l'œil! … Ou trente ans dans les coulisses de la peinture contemporaine 1900–1930 , which means something like “Bang! right in the eye ”, the title of which refers to the irritations that viewers of modern art experienced in their viewing habits. The book contained a foreword by Paul Reboux and watercolors or drawings by Raoul Dufy, Jules Pascin and Picasso. Weill was contemporary of the better-known gallery owners Ambroise Vollard , Eugène Druet , Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune , Clovis Sagot and Paul Guillaume . She reports on her passion for works by young artists such as Aristide Maillol , Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and André Derain , who exhibited at her early stage. In total, she organized almost 140 exhibitions between 1901 and 1933. The chronically red numbers of her business are not unmentioned in her work, but she was proud that she always found her way back to liquidity. A new edition was published in 2009.

The gallery moved one last time in 1937, the address was 27 rue Saint-Dominique in the 7th arrondissement . In 1939 it was closed for financial reasons. Weill stayed in Paris during the occupation of France . She managed to avoid the racist persecution to which she was exposed as a Jew. When she was about to be arrested in her tiny, dark apartment, she is said to have protested so verbally that she escaped arrest.

Last years

On December 12, 1946, 80 pictures were sold in a gallery in favor of Berthe Weill, the donors were artists and galleries. The fundraising campaign was a thank you from the artists Weill had supported in their early years, either by purchasing works or presenting them free of charge in their gallery. The action was supposed to secure their livelihood. In 1948 Berthe Weill was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur . She died in 1951 immobilized and almost blind at the age of 85 in her Paris apartment.

Appreciation

Suzanne Valadon: Nu , 1895. The drawing is dedicated to Berthe Weill: à Berthe Weill, à son esprit, avec toute mon amitié. Suzanne Valadon, 1927

Works by around 100 artists were exhibited in the B. Weill Gallery. In addition to the painters, draftsmen or sculptors already mentioned or who remained unknown, she showed early works by, for example, Alexander Archipenko , Émilie Charmy , Hermine David , Albert Gleizes , Alice Halicka , Marie Laurencin , Jean Metzinger , Isidre Nonell , Diego Rivera , Odilon Redon , Maurice Utrillo , Suzanne Valadon and Ossip Zadkine .

The preoccupation with modern art and her instinct for discovering exceptionally talented young artists determined Berthe Weill's life. However, she lacked professional business acumen and material interest, so that the majority of young painters switched to gallery owners who did not expect their artists or themselves to “live on air”, as Matisse's biographer Hilary Spurling put it in 2001 .

The plaque commémorative at 25 rue Victor Massé

In November 2011 a biography was published for the first time, which describes the life and work of the almost forgotten gallery owner. The art historian Marianne Le Morvan published the book under the title: Berthe Weill 1865–1951. La petite galeriste des grands artistes - in the subtitle she referred to the stature of the Weill: “The little gallery owner of the great artists”. Weill equated the female talent with that of the male artist, which was generally not the case in the cultural milieu at the time.

On February 7, 2012, the city of Paris decided to provide the house in 25 rue Victor Massé, where the first gallery was opened, with a plaque commémorative (memorial plaque) commemorating Berthe Weill and her gallery. The unveiling was on March 8, 2013. The text reads: A cette adresse, Berthe Weill 1865–1951 a ouvert en 1901 la première galerie d'art destinée aux jeunes artistes. Son soutien a permis la découverte de l'avant-garde de la peinture modern. ("At this address, Berthe Weill opened the first art gallery for young artists from 1865–1951 in 1901. Your support enabled the discovery of the avant-garde of modern painting.")

Fonts

  • Berthe Weill: Pan! dans l'œil! … Ou trente ans dans les coulisses de la peinture contemporaine 1900–1930. Librairie Lipschutz, 1933; New edition by L'Échelle de Jacob, Dijon 2009, ISBN 978-2-91322-483-4 .

Literature (selection)

  • Françoise Job: Berthe Weill, Galeriste (Paris, vers 1865 - L'Isle-Adam, avril 1951). In: Les belles lettres: Archives Juives , No. 35 (January 2002), pp. 147-151. on-line
  • Marianne Le Morvan: Berthe Weill 1865–1951. La petite galeriste des grands artistes. L'Ècarlate, Orléans 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-56097-0 .
  • Pierre Sanchez, foreword by Frédéric Chappey: Les Expositions de la Galerie Berthe Weill (1901–1942) et de la Galerie Devambez (1907–1926) - Repertoire des artistes exposants et liste de leurs œuvres. (Volume II of the series Les expositions des Galeries parisiennes ). L'Échelle de Jacob, Dijon 2009, ISBN 978-2-913224-94-0 .

Web links and sources

Commons : Berthe Weill  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berthe Weill , www.bertheweill.fr, accessed on January 18, 2012
  2. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill - galériste à Montmartre 1856–1951.
  3. ^ William Rubin : Pablo Picasso. A Retrospective, with 758 plates, 208 in color, and 181 reference illustrations. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thames and Hudson, London 1980, p. 28, ISBN 0-500-27194-1 .
  4. ↑ Marilyn McCully: Pablo Picasso: the early years - National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC findarticles.com, accessed July 3, 2012.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill - galériste à Montmartre 1856–1951.
  6. ↑ Hilary Spurling: The Unknown Matisse. Vol. I. University of California Press, 2001, ISBN 0-52022-203-2 , p. 232, accessed January 21, 2012.
  7. ^ William Rubin: Pablo Picasso. A Retrospective, with 758 plates, 208 in color, and 181 reference illustrations. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thames and Hudson, London 1980, p. 46.
  8. ↑ Gotthard Jedlicka: The Fauvism. 1961, pp. 14-16.
  9. ↑ Amedeo Modigliani , www.arti-fact.com, accessed on January 19, 2012.
  10. ↑ Berthe Weill , kubisme.info, accessed on July 3, 2012.
  11. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill - galériste à Montmartre 1856–1951.
  12. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill's memoirs. Crisis? Champagne!
  13. ↑ Quoted from the web link Berthe Weill's memories. Crisis? Champagne!
  14. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill - galériste à Montmartre 1856–1951.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Berthe Weill - galériste à Montmartre 1856–1951.
  16. ^ Archives Nationales , culture.gouv.fr, accessed April 13, 2013.
  17. ↑ Hilary Spurling: The Unknown Matisse Vol. I, University of California Press 2001, ISBN 0-52022-203-2 , p. 232, accessed January 21, 2012.
  18. ↑ Conseil de Paris , a06.apps.paris.fr, published on February 8, 2012, accessed on July 1, 2012
  19. ^ Des femmes d'exception à l'assaut des rues de la capitale. lemonde.fr, accessed April 13, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Weill, Berthe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weill, Esther Berthe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French gallery owner and art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1951
PLACE OF DEATH Paris