Chapter 7 I The Anarchists on the Montmartre Hill (1) Art dealers in Paris

I once showed a customer the first drafts of two paintings by Cézanne and he immediately said, "I don't want to buy these bare sheets of paper..." Ambroise Vollard The dealer Ambroise Vollard also disapproved of Picasso's Blue Period paintings. He discovered Picasso through Maniac and continued to sell his paintings in 1901 and from 1906 onwards.During that period he held exhibitions of paintings by Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.He was an art dealer, and his activity was quite different from that of a junk dealer.Junk dealers are just paint dealers, and Berthe Weil was one of those dealers at the beginning of the 20th century.However, Volald owns a very famous shop in the prime location. He was the first to buy the works of Delang and Flemish, as well as the sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944), a French sculptor and painter. .One of the interested dealers.Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), a French painter, is one of the main representatives of Impressionism.Closely connected, it was Pissarro who made Vollard discover the Impressionists.

Ambroise Vollard organized an exhibition of Cézanne's paintings in 1895 which both Durand-Ruel and the Bernin brothers refused.This extraordinary move raised his social status again and made him enter the ranks of the nobles in the painting business world.In his memoirs, he describes in detail how hard it took him to find the painter's retreat, since Cézanne carefully concealed its address from outsiders.After finding the painter's home, Ambroise Vollard had an appointment with the painter's son, and he explained to him in detail the plan to hold an exhibition.A few days later, he received a huge scroll of 150 paintings from the painter Cézanne.Due to lack of funds, Volald exhibited them after simply mounting them in rougher frames.Since then, both he and Cézanne have become famous in the painting world.This exhibition prompted Volald to devote himself wholeheartedly to the works of the painters he loved and admired after the exhibition, and at the same time began his long-loved publishing activities: he carefully selected the best paper, the best A platemaker who publishes books about art and works of art.

Over time, the Volald Gallery became a center of modern art.The gallery is located on Rue Lafitte in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the main street of the Parisian painting market.The galleries of Durand-Ruel and Bernin are also on the same street.Matisse, Rouault, Picasso and many other young artists often hang out here, looking for the best works of their predecessors. The windows of the Volald Gallery are unlike those of other galleries.I have seen the works of Renoir, Pissarro and Manet displayed on the Rue Lafitte.Chagall Marc Chagall (1887-1985), a French painter with Russian ancestry.He couldn't believe his eyes: the windows of the Volald Gallery were filthy, there were torn newspapers everywhere, and Volald was dressed like a monk.Pushing open the door, the visitor saw a desk, a stove, a sculpture by Maillol, some oil paintings and several unpainted works of Cézanne against the bottom of the wall, and the place was covered with dust.At this time, he fully understood what Vlaminck said. When he held his first art exhibition at the Volald Gallery, he sent his servants to clean the furniture and exhibits every day.

A man sits drowsy behind a desk.This was a Creole (of Caucasian descent) born in Reunion Island, just turned 40 years old, tall and fat, with a short beard and bald head.Renoir later compared the man to a "chimpanzee".Customers thought he had no interest in paintings because Volald couldn't be bothered to answer people who came into his gallery.He lazily opened one eye, asked them what they wanted, bowed his body, then sat down again, and replied, "Come back tomorrow." The next day, he'll take some paintings from his wealth-filled "Ali Baba" cave, and sit back at his desk, not moving a finger until a visitor points to a painting and asks this and that.

"What about this one?" "Fifty francs." "Forty francs." "As I said, fifty francs. If you make another offer, I'll ask for seventy francs." "but……" Volald shook his head, saying that it was useless to say anything else. "How can you prove it's not fake?" "It cannot be proven." "What? Can't prove it?" "This is a work from 1830, before I was born! ... If you don't believe me, just ask the artist himself!" The customer looked at this strange art dealer carefully with a puzzled expression, and then asked:

"Can you show me one or two of Cézanne's works?" After Vollard showed it to him, the guest asked: "How much does this one sell for?" "200 francs." "Do you think the price of Cézanne's work will go up?" "This has nothing to do with me!" The guest hesitated.Volald resolved to explain to him: "I bought this painting last year for 12 francs, and I sold it to you for almost 20 times the price..." "This shows that it has increased in price!" "This means that it has increased in price today! But tomorrow, it may not even be worth 12 francs!"

Behind his rude, obnoxious attitude Volald hides a cunning soul.He is like a cat peeping in the dark.If he took a fancy to any painter, he vowed to conquer him.It is not to buy one or two of his works, but to collect all his works.His business with Delang and Vlaminck was done in this way: because of his obsession with the rough and powerful style of the paintings of the Fauvists, Volald went to the studios of one painter after another, carefully pondered the works there, and then say rudely: "I'll buy." "What are you buying?" "all." Most of the time, he did not sign the purchase contract with the painter, only a verbal agreement was reached.

Whenever he is willing to take great pains to sell the painter's paintings, he is no longer a cat, but turned into a cunning fox.Alice Douglas vividly describes how he played a game of cat and mouse with two Americans, Gertrude Stein and Leon Stein. Now let us imagine the scene at that time: two Americans who had just arrived in France pushed the door of Volald's house.She is thick and strong, like a lumberjack, wearing leather sandals with laces on her feet, her hair is too short to make her look like a short-legged man, her fists are like bodyguards, she is unsmiling, and she talks loudly , crisp, and eloquent.As for him, he wears a waistcoat, a top hat, a red beard, and speaks with a serious attitude and a blunt tone. Compared with his sister, he looks a little thinner.Volald, still wearing his legendary overcoat and big, worn-out shoes with upturned toes like Islamic State slippers, sleeps behind his desk.

He remained motionless, unaware that standing opposite him was the largest patron of science, technology, literature and the arts in Paris.Since they came to Paris in 1930, the brothers and sister Stein have traveled all over the streets and alleys of Paris, carefully inspecting all the galleries and studios.They had a lot of money to spend, and they were going to use it to acquire works of art. Volald was indifferent to their arrival, still half asleep and dazed, waiting for someone to speak first.Leon Stein asked if he could show them Cézanne's landscapes.Volald rose lumberingly, and walked down the steps to the cellar where his treasure was kept.Five minutes later, he came up with a painting to show his two customers. However, the painting on the canvas was an apple.

Gertrude pointed out quickly, "Forgive me, it's not a landscape, it's a piece of fruit...and what we're looking at is a landscape painting." "I'm sorry," Volald called. He stomped up the steps to the cellar again and disappeared.The two Americans laughed. When the art dealer came back, he was holding a larger painting than the first one.He handed the painting to the two guests.They look at that painting with greater interest.This time, Leon spoke.He said: "Mr. Volald, we don't mean to make things difficult for you...but what we wanted was a landscape and you gave us a nude!"

Only then did Volald look at the painting he gave to the guest, and it was indeed a nude figure from the back. "Excuse me, I'll be right over..." He stepped up the steps just now for the third time, and when he returned, he was holding a large picture frame. "Do you want a landscape painting? This is a landscape painting!" However, the oil painting was not finished yet.It does have a view on it, but it's very small.The remaining sections are all empty. Gertrude Stein said: "This time it's better. We'd be happier if we could see a smaller but finished painting." "Then let me look again," muttered Volald. He is gone again.The siblings waited patiently.They heard footsteps, but not dealers.An elderly woman came out from the exit of the steps.After greeting them very warmly, she disappeared around the corner. Leon and Gertrude looked at each other for a moment, not understanding what was going on.They laughed.Another footstep was heard, and another woman appeared. "Gentlemen and ladies, hello!" She, like the previous one, disappeared around the corner of Lafitte Street. Gertrude laughed out loud and told her brother what she thought: the art dealer was crazy.The two women who have just passed here are painters working in the basement of the gallery.Every time he went down, he asked them to draw an apple, a naked back and a small piece of landscape in a hurry, and when he showed them, he insisted that it was indeed Cézanne's work.In fact, he had no Cézanne at all. The more the siblings talked, the happier they were.At this moment, Volald returned, and he handed them a brand new painting: a fully finished landscape, and it was very beautiful.The two Americans bought this Cézanne painting and left. Volald would probably tell friends that he had received two dull-witted Americans who couldn't stop laughing.However, he quickly learned that the more the two laughed, the more they bought. He was absolutely right.The more he made the two Americans laugh, the more often they came to visit his gallery.In that year alone, they bought two Cézanne nudes in Vollard's gallery, as well as a Monet, two Renoirs and two Gauguins. Volald's cellar is a complex, magical place.The cellar not only houses a large number of excellent works of art, but also has a kitchen and a dining room.Because the art dealer is not only a very stern and very cunning person, but also very entertaining and curious.He is also very talkative when he wants to, willing to listen to gossip and spread gossip, and he is also an amateur of folk literature.He was courteous and courteous to everyone, especially the ladies he admired.But he never married.In response to a question from Vlaminck about why he lived alone, he said that a legal wife would often ask him to answer many questions about Cézanne. "Can you imagine? What a nuisance it is to explain to others all the time!" The main dish people eat at Vollard's house is the main dish of Réunion, his birthplace, chicken curry.The art dealer invites his favorite artists and buyers of works of art.In particular, Rouault and Degas, who hates and excludes Jews and has a violent and annoying personality, accompany him for lunch at noon every day. (Degas could never forgive Berthe Weil for opening a gallery near his home.) Volald told people a story about Degas: One day, he went to Degas's home to give a painting, but Carefully dropping a half-centimeter-long piece of paper into a crack in the floor, he rushed over yelling: "Be careful! You've messed up my studio!" That nasty piece of paper was finally picked out. One night, Volald invited him to have dinner at home, and Degas put forward seven prerequisites to him: no butter in the dishes, no flowers on the table, only a layer of transparent gauze, and the cat must be kept in the same place. Locked up, no dogs allowed, women not allowed to sprinkle perfume, and meals had to be served on time at 7:30 p.m. Good Appetit everyone... The guests knew that Volald had a habit of leaning against the wall with his hands folded and his head behind him, every time he swallowed his last mouthful of food, and fell asleep. He had a drowsy habit of dozing endlessly, whether at the dinner table, in the carriage, or at his desk.He often complained of not sleeping well at night, blamed the bed for being bad, and vowed to replace it, yet he kept it.He vowed several times to throw his coat and shoes in the trash within a week, but they were still with him.His lethargic state has not done any harm to his business.His friends and even his enemies say that the more he sleeps, the richer he gets. The painters who painted Volald, especially Renoir, begged him not to embrace Morphee, the Greek god of sleep and night, while they were painting. .To keep him from dozing off, Bonnard forced a cat on his lap.What's more, Cézanne fixed him on a square stool.The square stool was not placed on the ground, but on top of four wooden stakes standing on a podium. "If you fall, the stool, the stake, and the lectern must fall together!" "so what?" "Then you're awake. This is torture.After modeling 150 times and having the misfortune of being dropped a few times, Volald asks: "Is it almost over?" "Not yet," Cézanne replied. "But at least my attitude satisfies you?" The painter took a few steps back, looked at it carefully for a moment, and replied: "I'm not satisfied with the front of your shirt..." Ambroise Vollard died in a car accident in 1903.While the driver was driving, the art dealer had been snoring in the back seat.There are two versions of the accident: some say it was an old-fashioned car, and the wheels hit the edge of a pothole in the road. Volald, who was sleeping, didn't notice anything, and hit his head on the back wall of the car, and never woke up again. come over.He took his life in a coma.Georges Charenthal put forward another more realistic statement: after the car lost control, a bronze statue created by Mayor placed on the back seat of the car was thrown off, and it happened to hit the art dealer's head, ruining his life. took his life. (According to Georges Charenthal's "The Two Straits", published in 1973) Whatever happened, Ambroise Vollard's death is certain, and it was the death of his two favorites: Maillol and sleep.