Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)
FROM PARIS TO NAGYBÁNYA - PARIS - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: The Poor Patron of Fauve Painting: Berthe Weill and her Gallery
KRISZTINA PASSUTH The Poor Patron of Fauve Painting: Berthe Weill and her Gallery "Oh, dear Miss Weill, I have a small painting, I dedicate my little work to you, Not a masterpiece, I admit, But buy it from me anyway, You would make me so happy, Oh, dear Miss Weill. .. " 1 Unfortunately, very little information has been preserved in the contemporary sources about Miss Berthe Weill, and even less has been dug up by subsequent research. 2 All that we know is that her artist friends called her "La Merveille", or "The Marvel", and that instead of a pair of spectacles she used a pince-nez. Cross-eyed and of small height, she subsisted on very little, sleeping and eating in her gallery situated in the Pigalle district, on the corner of rue Victor Massé and rue des Martyrs, which could not, by any standards, be described as a respectable middle-class neighbourhood. Besides the location, her "business" was different from the galleries on Montparnasse in other respects, also: the works of Matisse, Derain, Dufy, Utrillo, Van Dongen, and later of Picabia, Metzinger, Gleizes and, of course, Picasso, 3 were hung on pieces of string outside, in front of her boutique, clipped on with clothespins. According to the reports of contemporary chroniclers, she was one of the first art dealers to buy works from Picasso 4 and Matisse. Even more importantly, she sold a Matisse for 130 francs in 1902, and in April 1904, that is to say, about one and a half year before their introduction in the Salon d'Automne, she exhibited the compositions of those Fauvist painters, who began to form a group around Matisse. In addition to the master, the list included Camoin, Manguin, Marquet, Jean Puy, i.e. the painters who had studied in Gustave Moreau's workshop and later were drawn to Matisse's creativity and the innovative experiments of painting. On top of the artists mentioned, Dufy, Derain and Vlaminck joined the "group" in late October 1905, although Matisse was firmly opposed to the participation of Dufy, according to Berthe Weill's recollections. 5 On the other hand, Guillaume Apollinaire became a steadfast and devoted adherent of the gallery. He was primarily interested in the rebellious artists, as he himself was no less rebellious as a poet. 6 After the initial difficulties, the general situation of the gallery seemed to improve, and the year 1906 brought many successes to Berthe Weill, including the fact that Rouault —among other artists —exhibited there. 7 Nevertheless, Miss Weill was forced to sell her library in order to increase the revenues of her business. 8 In January 1907 she presented four painters, including Robert Delaunay and Metzinger. According to her: during that year Matisse was becoming more and more important; Dufy had just begun to matter; Marquet sold the largest number of works; Derain and Vlaminck were starving; and Camoin was rollercoasting. But no matter what, they as a group had exhibitions twice a year in Berthe Weill's gallery. 9 If we were to believe Miss Berthe Weill's claims, Dan Franck writes, then in 1908 she bought a Dufy for 30 francs and a Matisse for 70 francs. Her clients included the already famous art collector, André Level, who was an expert on primitive art. 10 But Berthe Weill must have been aware of the fact that she would not be able to make money through her business. Therefore, she not only tried to sell many paintings by the artists she patronized, but she also wanted to make sure that they become widely known and as highly recognized as possible." Her activities seem especially important in light of the fact that at that time the truly influential galleries, such as those owned by Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune or Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, were either still not in business or were not as yet interested in modern art. 12 On further analysis, we may come to the conclusion that Berthe Weill was so far ahead of Vollard that she had already supported the emerging Fauvists even before the formation of the group became an established fact. On the other hand, Vollard's tour de force was that he organized exhibitions for two artists, Picasso and Matisse, very early on, in 1901 and 1904, respectively. 13 After this, in 1905, Vollard bought up Derain's entire artistic output found in the artist's studio, with the exception of a copy of a painting ascribed to Ghirlandaio, which Derain would not depart with. 14 In a similar fashion, Vollard bought up Vlaminck's entire artistic production in 1906.
