Letter signed by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1963)
Letter signed by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1963)
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The dealer who first invested in Cubism and Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, writes to a famous German gallery owner.
- Letter signed by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to Mr. Stangl.
- One page.
- In German.
- 19.5 cm x 27.1 cm.
- Paris, April 9, 1963.
- Excellent condition of conservation.
- Unique piece.
Dear Mr. Stangel,
Yes, unfortunately, we arrived at 4 o'clock and missed each other. This morning I found your letter on my way back from Dortmund, where I was with Jardot at the opening of the Manolo exhibition at the museum. However, we cannot lend you the new heliogravures at such short notice, because all the collections have been promised for months. Please contact Hertz, who will be able to give you the sheets, thank you. Otherwise, you would have to agree on a date next season.
Best regards, also from my friend Jardot.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884 - 1979) was a renowned art dealer who was the first to invest in Cubism, along with painters such as Picasso and other great names in the early 20th century. Here we reproduce parts of an interview conducted in French by journalist Charlotte Delafond with Kahnweiler's biographer, Pierre Assouline.
CD What do you think are the essential characteristics that make Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler a key figure in the history of modern art?
PA First of all, it should be remembered that Kahnweiler was self-taught by nature; he did not follow aesthetic standards, but depended on his instinct. He learned his taste and his profession by going to the Louvre, attending the Salons, especially the Independents, at public sales and according to his reading, enriched by foreign art magazines. Furthermore, and this is very important, he was the same age as his painters - Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger - with whom he maintained a real complicity. He was truly the art dealer of his generation. (...) Kahnweiler was also a man with a certain strength of conviction, who made choices and maintained them at all costs, even in times of crisis. When he believed in Demoiselles d'Avignon, no one else believed in it; he did not change his mind in the face of criticism.
For his painters, he was willing to do anything, but what he asked for was exclusivity. So he was uncompromising. That's what made him special. He put them under contract, which had never been done before. He paid each of them a monthly fee to give them the means to live their art. They took care of the painting; the sales, the collectors, the salons and the rest were his. That was revolutionary!
The last thing is that Kahnweiler was a patient man. By that I mean that he thought of everything in the long term, he worked for posterity. In this sense, he invested heavily in propaganda and was one of the first - if not the first - to systematically photograph paintings and to send these photographic reproductions to art magazines all over Europe, in Germany, of course, but also in Switzerland, Belgium and England. This was one of his main strategies and one of the reasons that made his painters famous.
CD What did Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler owe to the famous old dealers, including Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard? And to what extent does he remain a role model for young dealers?
PA Paul Durand-Ruel, he did not know him, but he considered him an absolute model. He really admired him. Not only because he was the Impressionists' dealer who supported them against all odds, but also because of the line of conduct he imposed on himself. He respected the principles on which Durand-Ruel reinvented his profession, his moral attitude towards the market, artists and the public. Kahnweiler secretly wanted to reproduce what his master had done. He wanted to be a precursor, buying what he liked and imposing his taste on the public.
Ambroise Vollard was not the same story. He was a contemporary. He was a little older, but they often met; the Vollard gallery is not far from the one where he settled. He had been interested in Picasso shortly before him, and Kahnweiler respected his tastes. But the two men were very different, almost opposites. Ambroise Vollard liked to enjoy life, he took everything in his stride. Kahnweiler was very Germanic, quite austere and extremely meticulous. In other words, Kahnweiler liked Vollard, but he did not admire him.
Indeed, his true master was Paul Durand-Ruel. He was the one who laid the foundations of the art of the dealer in the modern sense of the term, which Kahnweiler adapted and reinvented at the beginning of the 20th century. For me, Kahnweiler is the model of the modern art dealer, or rather, of what a dealer should be in the 20th century. Today, of course, things have changed, the profession has evolved and the conditions are no longer the same. But the principles he presented are still valid.
Otto Stangl was a German art dealer and gallery owner, who with his wife Etta founded the Etta and Otto Stangl Modern Gallery in Munich in 1947, one of the most influential galleries of the avant-garde after the Second World War; Manolo Hugué, a friend of the Spanish painter Picasso, was a renowned sculptor; finally, Maurice Jardot was Kahnweiler's right-hand man and presided over the Kahnweiler/Leiris Gallery for almost 40 years (1956 - 1996).
Sometimes the people behind the scenes are as important and interesting as the celebrities themselves... after all, who would Picasso, Vlaminck or Derain, Gris or Leger be without Kahnweiler? This letter gives a glimpse into the daily life of this great art dealer, mentioning his work with his partner (Maurice Jardot), meetings with artists and exhibitions (Manolo Hugué) and relationships with other gallery owners (Etta and Otto Stangl) in 1963, the year George Braque died. We also like the personalized stationery of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, with the sophisticated letterhead of his famous gallery.
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