Soon after he opened his gallery in 1893, he made history as the first dealer to
organize a solo exhibition for Cézanne, followed by solo shows for Van Gogh in 1895,
Picasso in 1901 and Matisse in 1904. He often purchased works directly from the
artists he represented, occasionally buying out their entire studios for then bargain
prices (as with Cézanne in 1901 and Picasso in 1906). This approach enabled him to
rapidly amass a sizable and incredibly significant collection of works by Impressionist
and Post-Impressionist artists. He cleverly held many of the artworks in his
possession for years in order to take advantage of their ever-increasing value. He
took risks to exhibit emerging artists, such as the Nabis in the late 1890s, while also
acquiring works by established Impressionists, like Degas and Renoir, through trade.
His Cézanne retrospective proved to be exceptionally successful. With the proceeds,
Vollard opened a new gallery and printing house where he established himself as an
important publisher of lithographs and
livres d’artiste
in the 1890s, becoming a leader
in the revival of fine art printmaking. His first publication, in 1896,
L’Album des
Peintres-Graveurs
, contained color lithographs by the Nabis artists (including lot 59
by Vuillard), many of which he exhibited in an accompanying group exhibition. He
went on to publish prints and artist books by Vuillard, Bonnard (lot 61), Denis, Picasso
(lots 89-92), Cézanne (lot 38), Matisse, Rouault, Roussel (lot 71) and Cross (lot 70).
The 1913 Armory Show occurred at the end of Vollard’s most productive period;
during the 1920s/1930s he organized exhibitions less frequently and with less vigor.
By this time he had built his formidable collection, he lent numerous “blue-chip”
original works and lithographs by Cézanne, Gauguin, Redon, Renior, Vollard, Bonnard
and Denis to the show. He fared extremely well in the Armory Show; among the
multitude of sales his Cézanne,
Colline des Pauvres
(
The Poorhouse on the Hill
), sold
for $6,700 (roughly $160,000 today) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
This was a landmark acquisition, representing the first work of modern art to be
purchased by a major American museum. The color lithographs he published and
sent to the Armory Show (evidently as an after-thought) also sold very well and
were, in fact, among the best-selling items in the exhibition ( approximately two
thirds of all recorded sales at the Armory Show were of Vollard's lithographs)—he
offered both individual lithographs for $20-30 (roughly $500 today) and portfolios
of 12 lithographs sold for $120 a piece (roughly $2,800). The paintings lent by Vollard
elevated the quality of Impressionist works in the Armory Show overall, while the
presence of his more affordable, original lithographs allowed the widespread
dissemination of images by the Impressionist masters across the American art world.
Following the Armory Show, and with the onset of World War I in 1914, Vollard closed
his Parisian gallery, but continued to work with artists, still producing individual prints
and
livres d’artiste
. Among the most notable of his later publications is the massive
“Vollard Suite” by Picasso, published in 1939 and consisting of 100 etchings in a total
edition of 310. In 1939, at the age of 73, Vollard died in an automobile crash. It is
rumored that on impact, his neck was broken when he was struck by a copperplate
or bronze sculpture made by the artist Aristide Maillol that he had been storing on
the ledge above the rear seat of his car.
