Impressionism and the art market

Excellent study day at the National Gallery discussing aspects of their current exhibition looking at the life of Paul Durand-Ruel.

The first talk by Anne Distel from the Musee D’Orsay looked at who Durand-Ruel’s main buyers where and how collecting worked at that time. She also mentioned how it was sometimes difficult to tell collectors and financiers apart.  Next we had Durard-Ruel’s grandson and great niece who now look after the archives of the business who talked about his life and his principles of dealing.

Just before lunch was Richard Thomson from the University of Edinburgh talking about other dealers of the time followed by Ann Dumas from the Royal Academy after lunch talking specifically about Amboise Vollard, the significant dealer for the next generation of artists.

Alan Crookham from the National Gallery talked about the recent gift to them of the Agnew archive and early findings from its study.

The day ended with the curators from all three versions of this touring show talking about the different ways they are telling the story in the different venues and how they are using different spaces. I really wish I’d seen the show in Paris to compare but maybe Philadelphia , I think not!

All in all a really interesting day which added to my understanding of the show on a second visit.

 

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