GEORGES ROUAULT (1871-1958)

Ambroise Vollard (1866 - 1939) was one of the most influential art dealers during a momentous period in the history of European art. A champion of new and overlooked artists, he rescued Paul Cezanne from obscurity, was responsible for the first retrospective of Vincent van Gogh and was the first to show Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings. Vollard’s greatest claim to fame may be the decision to give the nineteen-year-old Picasso his first show in 1901, beginning a relationship that lasted until Vollard’s death decades later.
Vollard’s relationship with Rouault first began in 1907 when the art dealer unsuccessfully attempted to gain exclusive rights to the artist’s ceramics. It was not until 1917 that the two entered into a formal business partnership, establishing Vollard as Rouault’s sole agent in exchange for a salary and a studio in the art dealer’s home.

Vollard’s house on the rue de Martignac was packed with paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures and prints by Cezanne, Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, and many others. When Vollard died unexpectedly in a car accident in 1939, approximately 5,000 to 10,000 artworks were discovered in his home. Until such a time as when the contents of Vollard’s home could be divided between his heirs, the Paris authorities cordoned off the house with no one allowed entry, including Rouault whose studio was still inside.