Bernheim-Jeune

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Today's gallery Bernheim-Jeune, side entrance on Avenue Matignon

Bernheim-Jeune also stands for the name of a French family of art dealers , for one of the oldest and most important commercial galleries for contemporary art in Paris and for the art book publisher Éditions Bernheim-Jeune affiliated with this company .

The art gallery , originally founded in Brussels and, according to the company, relocated to Paris in 1863 , which is still managed by the founder's descendants to this day, has been at the intersection of rue since 1925, after having changed name and location several times du Faubourg Saint-Honoré (N ° 83) and Avenue Matignon (N ° 27) in the 8th arrondissement .

Together with the earlier galleries Paul Durand-Ruels and Ambroise Vollards , it can be assigned to the progressive Parisian art galleries that revolutionized the art trade in the last decades of the 19th century and laid the foundations of the modern art market at the beginning of the 20th century .

Eugène Louis Lami : The Boulevard des Italiens at night, on the corner with rue Laffitte , 1842. Bernheim's later gallery was 50 m away in rue Laffitte No. 8
Rue Laffitte No. 2/12 (on the right in the foreground) in 2016. A bank building has stood at the former location of the first Galerie Bernheim in Paris since 1925.

history

The origin of the gallery goes back to the Besançon- based paint dealer and art collector Joseph Bernheim (1799–1859), whose son Alexandre Bernheim (1839–1915) was on friendly terms with the artists who bought paints and painting accessories in his father's shop and exhibited their works . The painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), who came from the area around Besançon, encouraged the young Alexander Bernheim to turn to the art trade after he had lost his father at the age of 20 and introduced him to important artists such as Eugène Delacroix ( 1798–1863) and Camille Corot (1796–1875).

Alexandre Bernheim's Paris gallery was located in rue Laffitte (No. 8) from 1863 until at least 1913. It should not be confused with the Georges Bernheim Gallery , which was temporarily located in the same street (No. 9). Bernheim's company was just a few steps from the elegant, in earlier times temporarily Boulevard de Gand -called boulevard of the Italians removed from the approximately 1,855 for the Dandy introduced French noun gandin derived and which was the most elegant Parisian Promenade then for some time. The luxurious, heavily frequented cafés and restaurants on the boulevard attracted customers in the glass arcades during the day, and in the evening the audience at the Opéra Le Peletier , which is located in the immediate vicinity , the Salle Favart , the parent company of the Opéra-Comique ensemble and numerous other neighboring theaters. Other public attractions in the area were the Hôtel Drouot auction house, which opened in 1852, and the studio of the portrait photographer Étienne Carjat (No. 56) located in rue Laffitte . The picture framer, paint and art dealer Louis Latouche (1829–1884), who lived in a corner house on rue Lafayette (No. 34), supported the Impressionists in organizing the Salon des Refusés in 1867. The favorable location In this quarter populated by artists as well as potential collectors and buyers, it was not only Bernheim that moved rue Laffitte as the location, but also its most important competitors. The Paul Durand-Ruels gallery (No. 16) opened in April 1870, and the Ambroise Vollards gallery in 1893 (No. 39, then No. 41, from 1901 No. 6). In 1904 Clovis Sagot, called Sagot frère, moved into his small gallery (No. 46). When the First World War broke out , the rue Laffitte , which Vollard described in his memoirs of an art dealer as the street of pictures , housed around twenty art galleries.

In this area, which was becoming the center of the market for modern art, Bernheim first showed works by the painters of the Barbizon School , and later also those of the then controversial Impressionists . In the 1890s he began to involve his sons Josse, actually Joseph Bernheim-Jeune (1870–1941) and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (1870–1953), who worked as a painter under the pseudonym Gaston de Villers, in his activities. Under their impetus, the first major Van Gogh retrospective took place in 1901 (see below).

At that time, since 1900, further rooms were available in rue Richepance (No. 15) by the church La Madeleine in the western area of ​​the Grands Boulevards , where the hustle and bustle of the big bourgeoisie after the fire of the old opera on rue Le Peletier and the opening of the splendid Opéra Garnier . The fact that the gallery there appeared under the name "Bernheim-Jeune & Cie" shows the strong involvement of the two Bernheim brothers in the art trade since then.

With the support of their father, Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune set up their next gallery in 1906 under the name “Bernheim Frères et Cie” on Boulevard de la Madeleine (no. 25).

Another move to the current location in Faubourg Saint-Honoré culminated in 1925 with the inauguration of the current Bernheim-Jeune gallery by the then President Gaston Doumergue on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Chefs d'oeuvre du XIXème et XXème siècles . In the same year, the Bernheims were represented at the pioneering Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modern with their own pavilion Bernheim Jeune , built on the Cours la Reine , in which they exhibited works by the sculptor Maillol . Two years later they opened a branch in New York , where record prices could be achieved.

After a temporary closure (1940–1945) due to the Second World War and the occupation of France by German troops, the Bernheim-Jeune gallery resumed its activities in 1945 under the direction of Josse's sons Jean and Henri. Since 1981 it has been run by the direct descendants of the Bernheims, Michel and Guy-Patrice Dauberville, who continue the family tradition of trading in contemporary works under the name Bernheim-Jeune.

meaning

Alexandre Bernheim and his sons are among those pioneers among Parisian art dealers who, in the last decades of the 19th century, committed themselves to promoting avant-garde artists who were systematically excluded from the Académie des beaux-arts and the salon's jury, which was largely made up of academics . Conservatism and the incompetence of the official authorities allowed them to gain a place between the artists they supported and the art collectors, thus creating the conditions for the development of the modern art market of the 20th century.

On the initiative of the poet, collector and art critic Julien Leclercq (1865–1901), Bernheim and his sons organized the largest Van Gogh retrospective to date from March 15 to 31, 1901 , by the German gallery owner Paul Cassirer and the later Fauves made a lasting impression. Maurice de Vlaminck later wrote: I left this retrospective with a troubled soul. - I loved Van Gogh more than my father that day. On the occasion of this retrospective, Vlaminck met Henri Matisse for the first time , thanks to André Derains . A few years later, the three like-minded artists sparked the famous scandal in the Salon d'Automne (1905).

As independent gallery owners, the Bernheim-Jeune brothers continued to promote Impressionist, Neo- and Post- Impressionist painters , but, more than their father and Vollard, paid their attention primarily to contemporary painters who had made the final break with the Academy and the Paris Salon and - spurred on by motives other than academic artistic motivation - embarked on new paths of modernity . Great interest they brought in the artists' group Les Nabis federated Symbolists - those of with Josses and Joseph's sister Gabrielle Bernheim married since 1899 Félix Vallotton counter and the Fauves - was close to. At the beginning of 1905 - before the fall salon scandal - they dedicated a solo exhibition to Henri Matisse before signing him and Kees van Dongen in 1909.

Umberto Boccioni: La strada entra nella casa (1911). The gallery Bernheim-Jeune showed the painting as part of the first exhibition of the Futurists organized abroad, which caused a sensation in Paris in 1912.

In 1906, the Bernheim-Jeune brothers entrusted the anarchist -minded journalist and art critic Félix Fénéon (1861–1944) with the artistic direction of their gallery. From February 5 to 24, 1912, the futurists held a spectacular group exhibition in the rue gallery Richepance took place (see: The futurism before the First World War ).

After the First World War , the gallery, located in the elegant Faubourg Saint-Honoré from 1925 , contracted various artists, especially Neo-Impressionism and Symbolism, and rose to become one of the first Parisian trading houses for works of art from Impressionism to the present, which it continues to this day stayed.

The French art historian Gérard Monnier assesses the gallery's activities as significant for the new level of cultural responsibility of an art market . The retrospectives dedicated to Van Gogh and Cézanne, the contracts concluded with various artists and the exhibition of the Futurists are points of reference which would allow us to show the variety of functions performed by a great Parisian gallery of the time : the consecration and appreciation of great modern artists of the previous generation (Van Gogh, Cezanne), the discovery and contractual, commercial promotion of innovative contemporary artists (Matisse), the participation in an inventory of the international artistic topicality (with if necessary their commercial control) .

Last but not least, the tendency to include well-known art critics - such as Fénéon at Bernheim-Jeune - in the art trade in order to observe these new international trends was also innovative.

Le Bulletin de la vie artistique and the publishing house Éditions Bernheim-Jeune

In 1919 the Bernheim-Jeune brothers founded the bi-monthly art magazine Le Bulletin de la vie artistique . The gallery's artistic director, Félix Fénéon , and Adolphe Tabarant as editor from 1921 was responsible for the publication . In the same year they founded the publishing house specializing in the publication of artist monographs .

Exhibitions (selection)

Noteworthy exhibitions and artists sponsored by the Bernheim and Bernheim-Jeune galleries - some of whom were under contract - were:

Before the First World War
  • 1900: Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), impressionist (59 paintings, 1 watercolor)
  • 1901: Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Post-Impressionist (71 works)
  • 1902: Claude Monet (1840–1926), impressionist
  • 1905: Henri Matisse (1869–1954), Fauve, under contract from 1909 to 1926
  • 1906: Félix Vallotton (1865–1925), Swiss painter and wood engraver close to Nabis, brother-in-law of the Bernheim-Jeune brothers
  • 1906: Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), symbolist, member of the Les Nabis group
  • 1906: Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940), symbolist, member of the Les Nabis group
  • 1907: Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), post-impressionist
  • 1907: Henri Edmond Cross (1856–1910), Neo-Impressionist, Divisionist, under contract
  • 1908: Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Neo-Impressionist, Pointillist, under contract
  • 1908: Kees van Dongen (1877–1968), Fauve, under contract from 1909 to around 1916
  • 1909: Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), painter of realism (32 works)
  • 1912: group exhibition of the futurists:
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), Carlo Carrà (1881–1966), Luigi Russolo (1885–1947), Gino Severini (1883–1966)
After the First World War

In 1929, Bernheim-Jeune showed what was then the most important European collection of modern art that Paul Guillaume (1891–1934) had compiled. In the years between the two world wars, the gallery contracted the artists Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Paul Signac, as well as the Nabis Paul Sérusier (1864–1927) and Maurice Denis (1870–1943).

After the Second World War

The third Bernheim generation continued the family tradition after the Second World War. Today the gallery represents the interests of the following contemporary painters and sculptors and their heirs:

Members of the Bernheim and Bernheim-Jeune families

  • Joseph Bernheim (1799–1859), paint dealer and art collector in Besançon
  • Alexandre Bernheim (1839–1915), art dealer in Paris, son of the aforementioned; he married Henriette Adler, who bore him several children:
    • Gabrielle Bernheim (1863-1932); she married the divorced Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques in 1899, the painter Félix Vallotton (1865-1925)
    • Joseph Bernheim-Jeune (1870–1941), known as Josse, art dealer in Paris; he married Mathilde Adler (1892–1963). During the Second World War he took the code name Henry Dauberville. Two sons are known: Jean and Henri, art dealers in Paris.
    • Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (* December 20, 1870; †?), Pseudonym Gaston de Villers, also Bernheim de Villers, art dealer and painter in Paris; he married Suzanne Adler (born December 9, 1883, † 1961). During the Second World War, the couple presumably left for Switzerland. Renoir portrayed her daughter Geneviève, later Comtesse Jean de la Chapelle
Representations
  • 1899: Félix Vallotton: Madame Vallotton, née Gabrielle Bernheim (1863–1932) , oil on canvas, 58 × 50 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay.
  • 1902: Félix Vallotton: Madame Alexandre Bernheim, née Henriette Adler , oil on cardboard, 48 × 67.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
  • 1902: Félix Vallotton: Le Poker , oil on panel, 52.5 m × 67.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay. The group portrait shows Vallotton's brother-in-law J. Aghion, his mother-in-law Henriette Bernheim, née Adler, the art dealer Jos Hessel and Marcus Adler, Henriette Bernheim's brother playing poker. [1]
  • 1901: Auguste Renoir: Madame Gaston Bernheim de Villers , oil on canvas, 93 × 73 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
  • 1908: Pierre Bonnard: La Loge , oil on canvas, 120 × 91 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay. The family portrait shows Gaston and Joseph (Josse) Bernheim-Jeune with Mathilde, née Adler (1892–1963), wife of Josse and Suzanne, née Adler (1883–1961), wife of Gaston. Joconde database
  • 1910: Auguste Renoir: Madame Josse Bernheim-Jeune and her son Henry , oil on canvas, 73.3 cm × 92.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
  • 1910: Auguste Renoir: Geneviève Bernheim de Villers, future Comtesse Jean de la Chapelle , portrait of the little daughter of Gaston and Suzanne Bernheim de Villers, oil on canvas, 53 × 44 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay. Gift of the model's parents on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary
  • 1910: Auguste Renoir: Monsieur et Madame Bernheim de Villers , oil on canvas, 81 × 65.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
  • 1920: Pierre Bonnard: Joseph Bernheim-Jeune and Gaston Bernheim de Villers , oil on canvas, 165.5 × 155.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay

  • Félix Valloton:
    Madame Alexandre Bernheim, née Henriette Adler
    (1902)

  • Auguste Renoir:
    Monsieur et Madame Bernheim de Villers
    (1910)

  • Auguste Renoir:
    Madame Josse Bernheim-Jeune and her son Henry
    (1910)

  • Auguste Renoir:
    Geneviève Bernheim de Villers
    (1910)

  • Pierre Bonnard:
    Les frères Bernheim-Jeune
    (1920)

Web links

Commons : Bernheim-Jeune  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Gérard Monnier: Des Beaux-Arts aux Arts Plastiques. Une histoire sociale de l'art , Ed. La Manufacture, Besançon 1991, p. 215, ISBN 2-7377-0286-0
  2. ↑ Cynthia Saltzman: The Portrait of Dr. Gachet. The history of a masterpiece , Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2000, p. 91, ISBN 978-3-458-34577-0
  3. ↑ Cynthia Saltzman gives the opening of the Paris gallery in 1873, other sources in 1865
  4. ^ Jacques Hillairet: Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris , Volume 2, Editions de Minuit, Paris 1963, ISBN 2-7073-0092-6
  5. ^ Jean-Pierre Arthur Bernard: Les Deux Paris: Les représentations de Paris dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siecle , Editions Champ Vallon, 2001, ISBN 2-87673-314-5 , p. 195 online
  6. ↑ The most renowned restaurants on the Boulevard des Italiens at that time were the Maison Dorée restaurant ( no.20 on the corner with rue Laffitte), the Café Riche ( no.16 on the corner with rue Le Peletier), the Tortoni (no. 22, on the corner of rue Taitbout) and the Café Anglais on the opposite side of the street (No. 13, on the corner of rue de Marivaux)
  7. ↑ Among the theaters in the area around rue Laffitte, the Théâtre des Variétés on Boulevard Poissonnière was the most successful. In addition, the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes (No. 26), from 1878 Théâtre des Nouveautés ) and the curious Théâtre Robert-Houdin (No. 8) by the magician of the same name, archived copy ( Memento of the original from January 11 ), held their own on the Boulevard des Italiens 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.artefake.com
  8. ↑ Ambroise Vollard: Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux , Albin Michel, 2007 (German: Memories of an Art Dealer )
  9. ↑ Hillairet, p. 12
  10. ↑ Grand Larousse Encyclopédique, Volume 2, Paris, 1960, p. 88
  11. ↑ since 2001 rue Chevalier-de-Saint-Georges
  12. ^ Pavillon Bernheim Jeune, detail, Exposition international des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modern 1925, photography online in the database Mistral des Ministère de la Culture (France) - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - diffusion RMN.
  13. ^ René Gimpel : Journal d'un collectionneur marchand de tableaux , Calman-Lévy, Paris 1963, p. 400, ISBN 2-7021-0632-3
  14. ^ Maurice Vlaminck: Portraits avant décès , Flammarion, Paris 1943. Original text: Je sortis de cette rétrospective l'âme bouleversée. - Ce jour-là, j'aimais mieux Van Gogh que mon père.
  15. ↑ Florens Deuchler: Arts and music of the early modern age in the judgment of their protagonists. Year 1912 , Schnell & Steiner, 2003, ISBN 3-7954-1513-6 , pp. 77, 201
  16. ↑ Les activités de la galerie Bernheim-Jeune, entre 1900 et 1914, sont ainsi significatives de la nouvelle étendue des responsabilités culturelles d'un marché de l'art (…). - Ces repères montrent la diversité des fonctions assurés par une grande galerie parisienne à ce moment: la consécration et la célébration des grands artistes modern de la génération précédente (Van Gogh, Cézanne), la découverte et la promotion commerciale contractuelle des artistes novateurs du moment (Matisse), la participation (avec éventuellement son contrôle commercial) à l'inventaire de l'actualité artistique internationale . Gérard Monnier in Des beaux-arts aux arts plastiques , p. 217
  17. ↑ Bernard Leca: Le Processus de desinstitutionalisation d'un évenement: le cas du salon de Paris , dissertation, Nottington University Business School, Nottingham, 2005 online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.xn--stratgie-aims-fhb.com  
  18. ^ Walter Pach: Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Nouvelles Editions Françaises, Paris
  19. ^ Meyer Schapiro: Vincent van Gogh , Nouvelles Editions Françaises, Paris
  20. ↑ Exposition de la collection Paul Guillaume à la gallery Bernheim-Jeune, 1929 ( Memento of November 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), at the Musée de l'Orangerie .
  21. ↑ Archives d'Etat de Genève: Personnes enregistrées à la frontière genevoise durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale (pdf)