Celebrity, art merchant, socialite, publisher, and writer, Ambroise
Vollard (1867-1939) was one of the most extraordinary figures in
20th-century art. He possessed an uncanny ability to recognize genius in
painters -- dozens of important artists received valuable commissions
and gallery space with his help, and his galleries presented the first
one-man shows for such luminaries as Matisse, Cézanne, and Picasso.
Vollard's warmth, candor, and intelligence earned him the friendship of
a generation of artists and make this memoir an enthralling and often
hilarious account of an exciting Golden Age of painting.
Vollard's anecdotal recollections transport the reader to Paris at the
turn of the 20th century and the legendary Street of Pictures, the rue
Laffitte, where Vollard lived and worked. Rather than critiquing artists
or esthetic movements, Vollard focuses on the human sidelights that made
his life as picture dealer so rich and fascinating: his early efforts to
sell the works of Cézanne, despite incredible opposition to
Impressionism; his dinner parties, whose guests included Renoir, Forain,
Degas, Redon, and Rodin; his many portrait sittings for Cézanne, Renoir,
Rouault, Bonnard, Forain, and Picasso; his observation on the studios,
habits, and personalities of Manet, Matisse, Picasso, de Groux, Signac,
and Rousseau; and his encounters with Gertrude Stein, Alfred Jarry,
Guillaume Apollinaire, Mallarmé, and Zola.
