Journal D'un Collectionneur : Marchand De Tableaux 1918-1939

Signing on Thursday 13 April 2023, from 6.30 to 8.30 pm at Librairie Lardanchet

René Gimpel (1881-1945), author of the diary reproduced in this book, was one of the great art dealers of the inter-war period. He sailed between America and Europe, helping to build the greatest collections across the Atlantic: those of Frick, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, Ford, J.-P. Morgan... He rubbed shoulders with the artists of his time, but also with the dealers - Joe Duveen, his brother-in-law, Durand-Ruel, Paul Rosenberg, Nathan Wildenstein, whose partner he was, Ambroise Vollard - and met critics and writers, Apollinaire, Berenson, and above all Marcel Proust, whom he met in 1907 in Cabourg, where they were staying in the same hotel. Their common passion for Vermeer bound them in a deep friendship.

From 1918 to September 1939, he reported with accuracy, humour and even a certain ferocity, the actions of the personalities he met between the United Kingdom, the United States and Paris.