Chapter 25 I Anarchists on the hills of Montmartre (2) Poets and art dealers

Art is a child of the times. Wassily Kandinsky What would Cubism be without Apollinaire's attack on all sides to defend it?Danielle-Henri Carnville never thought about it.He never wrote an article to defend Cubism, but he made no less contribution to the painters who defended him than Apollinaire.Just as Bernheim was the dealer of Matisse, Durand-Ruel was the dealer of the Impressionists, and Volald was the dealer of Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and the Independents, Carnville was the dealer of the Cubists. Painter's dealer. When Carnville was 23 years old, he opened a gallery in the dilapidated shed of a Polish tailor on Rue Vignon near the Paris Opera House.The area is only 16 square meters, and a German financier provided him with 25,000 gold francs.It was a risky gamble: the young man had only one year to prove he was capable, and had to surrender the gallery if he failed in the painting trade.

However, he succeeded.At the Independent Art Exhibition, he bought some paintings by Derain and Flemish, and then he bought works by Van Dongen and Braque. In 1907, after William Yude had talked to him about "The Maiden of Avignon", he went to the "laundry boat" to meet Picasso.Contrary to many others, he was fascinated by that painting.He understood immediately what kind of rupture this painting represented in the history of art.He wanted to buy it at the time, but Picasso refused to sell it to him on the pretext that the painting was not finished.Carnville had no choice but to purchase some sketches for the painting.However, he later visited Picasso many times.After Volald gave way, he replaced Volald's position beside Picasso and became Picasso's art dealer.

Fernand Olivier described him as a very stubborn and brave man.Once he has chosen his goal, he perseveres and perseveres until he has fully attained it. In fact, this is a code of conduct.Forty years later, he still lives by that code.He arrived uninvited. After finding Picasso, he sat down and vowed not to give up until he reached his goal.The painter sometimes condemned him, sometimes sharply provoked him, but the art dealer calmly denied or hypocritically agreed with his criticism.Sometimes, they also had some philosophical discussions. In this case, Carnville was always careful not to gain the upper hand of the painter: if he won the argument, he must lose the business.Hour by hour passed, and both sides began to tire of it.Carnville still sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and had no intention of leaving, so Picasso had no choice but to give in: let him buy it.

Françoise Guillot said: During the period from 1944 to 1945, Carnville had not obtained the franchise rights of Picasso's works at that time, and Picasso asked him to compete with another German, Louis Carré.Louis Carré's gallery on Rue Messina was one of the largest galleries in Paris at the time.Picasso invited the two art dealers to his home in Great August Street and left them alone in the vestibule for a meeting.Then the painter invites one of them to his studio.Normally, he invited Louis Carré first.In accordance with the principle that the deeper the love, the stricter the responsibility, the painter made his favorite figure like an ant on a hot pot, running around in a hurry.

He discussed leisurely with the invited art dealers in the studio until the visitors who were left in the vestibule were tortured to the point of intolerability.When the painter and art dealer reappeared, Carnville's face was ashen. As long as Carre showed the slightest happy expression, it made people feel that the business between them was concluded (or even not), poor Carn Willie's face suddenly turned green. Picasso called him into the studio, and it was much easier to negotiate the price with him at this time.Françoise Guillot concluded from this: "This is one of the negotiating techniques I discovered in Picasso: using cold shoulders against businessmen, using one to beat the other."

When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman wins (the original text is: In the game of cat and mouse, cheese always wins).It was no longer the time when Braque, Derain, Flemish and Picasso came to the gallery of Carnville in Rue Vignon wearing stoker overalls, took off their top hats, and shouted "Boss, we have to pay!" . Carnville is already an upright dealer in Cubist paintings.It was a title he had worked so hard to earn.Apollinaire replied sarcastically: "Yes, but what about the Cubists?" The reason why Carnville regards Braque, Picasso, Gris and Loesche as "the four great cubists" is because this is an indisputable fact.Otherwise, someone would usurp his title of "Cubist dealer".Apollinaire, who has received a lot of malicious attacks, knows very well who these attacks come from. It is this person who is more or less, consciously or unconsciously, jealous of the intimacy between the painter Picasso and the poet.

Both are friends of art.They are each passionately fighting for the defense of art in their own way.Carnville, like Vollard before him, published and distributed the works of poets illustrated by painters, and printed 100 sets of outstanding works as rare editions. Carnville was the first publisher of Apollinaire's works, and Apollinaire was also his first author: In 1909, "The Decaying Wizard", there are 32 woodcut illustrations of Delang in the book (published in 1911 by Max. Jacob's San Martorell, illustrated by Picasso), was published in sets of 100, and five years later, 50 sets were sold.This is a treasure in the literary world:

The lady touched him and felt that his figure was beautiful.She loved him very much, and granted her wish, as well as that of her mother and others. Carnville liked and admired the poet Apollinaire very much.He respected his erudition but despised him as a critic.He believed that poets were sociable and ignorant of art history.In his opinion, Apollinaire's "Aesthetic Meditations" are just boring nonsense.It is difficult for him to accept the anecdotal part of the article, and he cannot tolerate Apollinaire's crude rhetoric in order to defend the painters who gathered in Hall 41 of the 1911 Independent Painting Exhibition.When Apollinaire had frequent contact with the painters of the Jin School in the second year, Carnville could no longer control it and reprimanded him severely.He wanted criticism to tell the difference between right and wrong: who were the Cubists?Who is not?What is his position?

The dealer Carnville wanted Braque and Picasso to ask their poet friend to clarify their position.They declined, perhaps because they actually agreed with the dealer, but they accommodated the poet. Apollinaire, who had just published "Alcohol" in the "French Courier" magazine (the frontispiece of which is a portrait painted by Picasso for him), learned that Carnville immediately raised his pen when he learned that he was sowing discord, and responded: ... I have learned that you do not consider my comments on paintings to be of any value, which makes you a very special person.I, as a writer, single-handedly defended painters (you didn't meet them until after me), and was the only one who laid the groundwork for a better understanding of art in the future.But you tried every possible means to beat me, do you think this way is authentic?

[Excerpt from Pierre Azurina's 1988 article "The Artistic Man"] The dealer’s response to the above challenge is as follows: I have received a curious letter from you.Reading your letter, I thought about whether I should be angry, but the result of my consideration is: I am not angry at all, but feel very ridiculous. [Excerpt from Pierre Azurina's 1988 article "The Artistic Man"] In Carnville's view, things are very clear: only those painters who exhibited their works on the Rue Vignon and sold their works abroad are Cubists, and everyone else is a poor follower.He didn't pay attention to them at all.

In 1912 he signed contracts with his fellow artists.The principle is very simple: he buys their entire oeuvre according to pre-determined conditions.He asked for a franchise.Prices vary by specification.He paid DeLong more than Braque, and the price of Picasso's works was two-thirds higher than Braque's.Picasso was very careful when negotiating the contract with him, pondering item by item: the dealer has the exclusive right to his works for three years, except for old works and portraits ordered by others; Picasso keeps five oil paintings and some sketches every year; Buy all other works, including gouache, at least 20 pieces per year. The dealer signed it.He trusts his customers, and he believes that they will strictly abide by the contract.His buyers were no longer just Gertrude Stein or a bunch of enlightened Frenchmen.For some time, foreign collectors also came to Paris to meet the Cubists. The first of these foreign collectors was the Russian Sergei Zhukkin.The textile industrialist owned the Tubesko Palace in Moscow.He has bought some works by Derain and Matisse.Matisse also made a special trip to Moscow to hang the "Music and Dance" for him.Works he bought from the Galerie Carnville hung on the walls alongside works by Van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne and Gauguin. Since 1908, Zhu Kejin has been very interested in Picasso's works.Soon, he acquired the most important works of Picasso's blue period, red period and cubism period (after the October Revolution of 1917, his collection was completely returned to the state, which greatly enriched the Moscow and St. Petersburg museums).His main intermediary is Carnville. Carnville has attacked in all directions and has extensive contacts with all aspects, except that he has no contact with the official painting fair.He suggested that the painters who had signed contracts with him follow the example of Picasso, so as to avoid the ridicule and ridicule of the critics who accompanied the heads of the republic to and from the Grand Palace.Therefore, whoever wants to find the works of Braque, Derain, Gris and Picasso in France must find collectors who like these painters' works, or go to the small galleries on Vignon Street, and of course, they can also cross borders and go to foreign countries. .Because at that time these artists no longer participated in the official painting exhibitions in Paris, their works had already left France to participate in painting exhibitions held in Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, London and Moscow.