Paul Guillaume

Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Guillaume, 1916, Museo del Novecento (Milan)

Paul Guillaume (French pronunciation: [pɔl ɡijom]; November 28, 1891 in Paris – October 1, 1934 in Paris) was a French art dealer.[1][2][3] Dealer of Chaïm Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani, he was one of the first to organize African art exhibitions.[2] He also bought and sold many works from cutting-edge artists of the time, such as Henri Matisse, Constantin Brâncuși, Pablo Picasso, and Giorgio de Chirico.

Life

Paul Guillaume and Amedeo Modigliani in Nice in 1917, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Being from modest origins, Paul Guillaume worked first as a mechanic in an automobile garage in Montmartre and then founded his own art gallery in Paris at rue de Miromesnil. In his gallery, he presented and sold especially the works of Amedeo Modigliani, who painted several portraits of him.

When he worked as a mechanic in an auto garage, he found some African sculptures in a delivery of rubber for the tyres, and made an exhibition of them in 1911 in the same garage. His display of them brought him to the attention of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who in turn introduced him to many of the artists of the beginning of the century in France — Pablo Picasso, Marie Laurencin ec.[4] He soon organized important exhibitions, such as the Première Exposition d’Art Nègre et d’Art Océanien, on 13–19 May 1919, with a catalogue by Henri Clouzot and additional text by Apollinaire. Apollinaire, who died the previous year, had also collaborated with Paul Guillaume on the pioneering study Sculptures Nègres in 1917.[5] This exhibition – drawn from Guillaume's private collection – placed African art at the heart of Modernism.

During the First World War, he exhibited the works of the so-called "metaphysical" period of Giorgio de Chirico on the stage of the Vieux-Colombier theatre, while also exhibiting André Derain, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Kees van Dongen in his gallery on rue de Miromesnil.

In October 1920, he married Juliette Marie Léonie Lacaze (1898-1977) whom he nicknamed “Domenica”. The couple first lived on Avenue de Messine and then in a luxurious 600 m2 apartment at 22, Avenue du Bois in Paris. As Picasso’s biographer John Richardson notes, Paul Guillaume came to live in grandeur, had taken to driving around with an entourage of assistants in two Hispano-Suizas, the chauffeurs “dressed up like generals in the Tsar’s imperial guard.” [6]

In 1922, he advised and supplied paintings to Albert Barnes, the extremely wealthy American who created the foundation that bears his name near Philadelphia.

Paul Guillaume died prematurely in 1934 from peritonitis caused by untreated appendicitis. His wife's hesitation to have him hospitalized raised questions, but Domenica brushed off those concerns. [7]

After his death, his wife Domenica married architect Jean Walter, whose mistress she had been during Paul Guillaume's illness, and modified Guillaume's collection, selling his most "extreme" paintings and acquiring more conservative impressionist paintings. After her own death, this collection of 20th-century paintings became part of the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris.[8]

Collection’s inheritance and Lacaze affair

Domenica was once accused of the murder of Paul Guillaume, who died early and suspiciously. Some speculate that she was cleared of all charges in exchange for giving the collection to the French state after her death.[4][9][10]

Paul Guillaume's testamentary provisions provided that if his wife did not have a child by him, a foundation would be heir. Domenica Guillaume then simulated a pregnancy, obtained a pregnancy certificate and finalized her stratagem by adopting a child, named Jean-Pierre Guillaume. [11]

In 1959, Jean-Pierre Guillaume accused Dr. Maurice Lacour, Domenica Walter's lover, and her brother Jean Lacaze of plotting to murder him. Lacour was sentenced to prison. Domenica Walter's connections saved her from prosecution, but the most important part of the Walter-Guillaume collection (16 Cézannes, 23 Renoirs, 5 Modiglianis, 12 Picassos, 10 Matisses, 27 Derains and 22 Soutines) was transferred to the state in 1959 and 1963 as part of the deal negotiated by André Malraux, Minister of Culture. [12]

The collection was not definitively integrated into the walls of the Musée de l'Orangerie until after Domenica Walter's death in 1977.

References

  1. ^ "Who was Paul Guillaume?". Musée de l'Orangerie. Retrieved 10 February 2010. From humble beginnings, Paul Guillaume (1891–1934) rose to become one of the leading cultural players and art dealer-collectors of Paris in the early 20th century. Guillaume died at the age of forty-two, by which time he had amassed an outstanding private collection of works by leading modernists
  2. ^ a b "De Claude Monet à Paul Guillaume". Musée de l'Orangerie. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2010. Un second événement achève de façonner l'identité du musée : l'acquisition (1959 et 1963) de la Collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume, aboutissement longtemps différé d'un projet formé dans les années 20 par un jeune marchand de tableaux, Paul Guillaume, qui, devant l'incompétence des pouvoirs publics en matière d'art moderne, s'était promis de doter Paris d'un musée "donnant la mesure authentique de l'art vivant dans le monde"
  3. ^ "Marie Laurencin". Musée de l'Orangerie. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Orangerie—Paul Guillaume, Paris". francetravelplanner.com. Retrieved 10 February 2010. The story of the collection is equally fascinating. Paul Guillaume was a young man of modest means working as a mechanic in an auto garage when he found some African sculptures in a delivery of rubber. His display of them brought him to the attention of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who in turn introduced him to many of the artists of the day—Pablo Picasso, Marie Laurencin and others.
  5. ^ Lemke, Primitive Modernism, 1998, pp.35–41: Paul Guillaume. 'A New Aesthetic', 1919.
  6. ^ John Richardson. A Life of Picasso. Volume III: The Triumphant Years: 1917-1932. New York, Knopf, 2010. ISBN‎ 978-0375711510. Pp.98-99
  7. ^ Florence Trystram. La Dame au grand chapeau: L’Histoire vraie de Domenica Walter-Guillaume. Paris, Flammarion, 1966. Pp.20-21.
  8. ^ "Who was Paul Guillaume?". Musée de l'Orangerie. Retrieved 10 February 2010. After his death Domenica, his widow and heir, remarried and modified the existing collection, selling some of the more extreme avant-garde works (and later his collection of African art and modern sculpture) and acquiring works of a more conservative character
  9. ^ "Domenica ou la diabolique de l'art". France 5. Archived from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2010. Paul Guillaume strangely died of an ulcer badly treated by his wife... Unscrupulous and without any maternal feelings, Domenica appoints his brother, Jean Lacaze and her lover, Dr. Lacour, to hire a hit man to murder his adopted son. The hired killer, Major Ray, turns out to be a paratrooper, as the victim was, and he denounced the ploy. The scandal is inevitable!...André Malraux, Minister of Culture would have proposed a deal: impunity and no prison if she "bequeathed" all his art collection to the State
  10. ^ Noce, Vincent (11 February 2010). "Domenica dans ses basses œuvres". Libération. Domenica Walter William (1898–1977) avidly collected lovers and master paintings. Story of a life marked by the mysterious death of her two husbands and an attempted murder against her adopted son
  11. ^ Christine Clerc. Domenica la diabolique, Éditions de l'Observatoire, 2021. ISBN 9791032905975. Pp.25-27.
  12. ^ Christine Clerc. Domenica la diabolique, Éditions de l'Observatoire, 2021. ISBN 9791032905975. Pp.28-30.
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