Auguste Pellerin

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Paul Cézanne:
Portrait of Auguste Pellerin , around 1899

Auguste Pellerin (born February 20, 1853 in Paris , † October 18, 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French entrepreneur and art collector. He was one of the most important collectors of the works of Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne at the beginning of the 20th century.

Life

Auguste Pellerin made his fortune making margarine . His successful company included factories in France, England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. From 1906 until his death in 1929 he also served as Norwegian Consul General in Paris.

At the beginning of his collecting activity, Pellerin acquired handicrafts made of porcelain , faience and objects made of glass. There were also the first paintings by established painters such as Antoine Vollon and Jean Jacques Henner . This was followed by works by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and paintings by the Impressionists . Here the focus was on Édouard Manet, of whom Pellerin owned numerous major works. In 1898 Pellerin bought his first work from Paul Cézanne at Ambroise Vollard . Over the years he has amassed a considerable collection of more than 90 works by this artist. Cézanne was one of the artists the collector got to know personally, as evidenced by a painting sketch with the portrait of Pellerin from around 1899. Another portrait by Pellerin is by Henri Matisse . The 1917 painting Auguste Pellerin II , 1916, oil on canvas, 150.2 × 96.2 cm, is now part of the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne in the Center Georges Pompidou . In addition, Pellerin was friends with Auguste Rodin , who visited him at Pellerin's country estate in Neuilly-sur-Seine, as did the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke , who worked as Rodin's secretary around 1905.

The sale of his collection of thirty-five pictures by Édouard Manet on February 2, 1910 to a consortium consisting of the French art dealers Bernheim-Jeune , Durand-Ruel and the German Paul Cassirer for 1,000,000 francs , a third of the estimated price, caused a sensation . Many of these pictures, which were exhibited by Heinrich Thannhauser in the Modern Gallery in Munich, went to German collectors and later ended up in German museums. Although Pellerin had already sold parts of his art collection again during his lifetime, his son Jean-Victor Pellerin and his daughter, Mme Réne Lecomte, inherited an extensive inventory of paintings, drawings and sculptures. In 1982 the heirs donated fourteen important works by Paul Cézanne to the French state museums.

Works from the Pellerin Collection (selection)

literature

  • Emil Waldmann: Édouard Manet in the Pellerin Collection. In: Art and Artists. 8 / 1909-1910, pp. 387-398.
  • Josef Kern: Impressionism in Wilhelmine Germany . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1989, ISBN 3-88479-434-5 .
  • Anne Distel: Impressionism, The First Collectors . Harry N Abrams, New York 1990, ISBN 0-8109-3160-5 .
  • Catherine Krahmer (Ed.): Art is not there for art history, letters and documents . Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-412-9 .
  • Andreas Hollezcek (ed.): French art - German perspectives 1870–1945, sources and comments on art criticism . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-004019-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of birth according to: Carl Rudolf Andersson Fredberg: Från vår merkantila och industriela verld: portraits, autographs, biographies and sketches från Sveriges handel, industri och handtverk. Bonnier, Göteborg 1902, pp. 255 ff.
  2. ↑ Julius Meier-Graefe et al.: Art is not there for art history: letters and documents. (= Publication of the German Academy for Language and Poetry Darmstadt. 77). Wallstein Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-89244-412-9 , p. 275.
personal data
SURNAME Pellerin, Auguste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French entrepreneur and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1929
Place of death Neuilly-sur-Seine