Paul Durand-Ruel
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Paul Durand-Ruel (1831 – 1922) was a French art dealer who is associated with the Impressionists.
Durand-Ruel's father was a picture dealer. In 1865 young Paul took over the family business, which represented artists such as Corot and the Barbizon school, and he soon established a relationship with a group of painters who would become known as the Impressionists. His first major exhibition of their work took place at his London gallery in 1872. He also brought their work to New York, doing much to establish the popularity of Impressionist art in the United States. He was one of the first modern art dealers who provided support to his painters with stipends and solo exhibitions.
[edit] Life
Portrait Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel, who became a member of the family firm when illness forced him to leave the army, found himself particularly drawn to the work of Eugène Delacroix and the French school of the 1830s, that is, Thomas Couture, Henri Regnault, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Alexandre Cabanel, Ernest Hébert and later Emile Lévy. It was the works of these men, as well as of landscape painters such as Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet and Narcisse Diaz, that he began to buy, frequently reserving pictures before the Salon. He later joined forces with Hector Brame, and during the 1860s bought paintings, sometimes whole collections, for a number of prominent figures including Laurent-Richard and Khalil-Bey. He was also responsible for large-scale auctions and exhibitions. In 1869, along with Alfred Sensier, he founded the short-lived La Revue internationale de l'art et de la curiosité.
During the Franco-Prussian War, Durand-Ruel escaped to London, where he met up with a number of French artists including Charles-François Daubigny, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. In December 1870 he opened the first of ten Annual Exhibitions of the Society of French Artists at 168 New Bond Street, under the management of Charles Deschamps.
In the winter of 1871 James McNeill Whistler began exhibiting his work at Durand-Ruel's New Bond Street gallery, taking a great interest in the framing and presentation of his work. Durand-Ruel also held a couple of exhibitions of Whistler's work in his Paris gallery, showing Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter and (Views of the Thames) in 1873 Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Bognor, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge, Nocturne en bleu et argent, Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend and Dessin in 1888. A number of other of Whistler's paintings passed through Durand-Ruel's hands including Sketch for La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine , Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville, Study for the Head of Miss Cicely H. Alexander, Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder and Alice Butt.[1]. In 1898 Whistler arranged with Durand-Ruel to borrow Edouard Manet's The Execution of Maximilian (1868-9; Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim) for the first exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers at the Princes' Skating Club in Knightsbridge.
