Ambroise Vollard

French, 1867 - 1939

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike License

French art dealer (1866-1939)

Explore Selected Works

See all 73 works of art
Georges Rouault, The Breton Wedding, 1937, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.37

The Breton Wedding

Georges Rouault · 1937 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.37

A glass bottle, a glass carafe, a stemmed glass, several pieces of fruit, and white and blue cloths are arranged on a wooden table in this horizontal still life. The bottle and carafe are at the center of this composition. The bottle has a crimson-red label, and the carafe has a tall, narrow neck and a rounded body. The stemmed glass has straight, flaring sides, and it sits on the table just in front of the carafe. Several pieces of fruit, painted in reds and yellows, are interspersed on the white cloth that surrounds the glassware. The muted, celestial-blue tablecloth is patterned with scrolls and leaves, and it bunches around the objects on the tabletop. The wall behind the table is mottled with cool blues and greens, and a brown line, perhaps a chair rail, runs from behind the still life to the right edge of the painting. Short brushstrokes are visible throughout.
Paul Cezanne, The Peppermint Bottle, 1893/1895, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.104

The Peppermint Bottle

Paul Cezanne · 1893/1895 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.104

Jean-Louis Forain, Woman at a Counter, brush and black ink with black chalk on wove paper, Gift of William B. O'Neal, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.150.26

Woman at a Counter

Jean-Louis Forain · · brush and black ink with black chalk on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1991.150.26

We look down onto a shadowy stage with a ballerina and a man in this black and white work on paper. The man stands in the lower left corner of the composition wearing a knee-length jacket and resting his wrists on a tall stick in front of his body. Though his face and head are lost in deep shadow, it seems that he looks toward the ballerina to our right. Up on her toes en pointe, her body faces us but her arms are raised and angled toward the upper left corner of the composition. She turns her upper torso and head to gaze in the direction of her hands. Lighting comes from the front edge of the curving stage and illuminates the man’s pants and undersides of his arms, the dancer’s legs, tutu, and face, and the front part of the stage. The space behind the people is lost in shadow but is marked by strokes and smudges. In the upper left corner the names of the artists are scratched onto the ink that had coated the surface of the printing plate: “Lepic” and “Degas.”
Edgar Degas, Vicomte Ludovic Lepic, The Ballet Master, c. 1876, monotype (black ink) heightened and corrected with white chalk or wash on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1964.8.1782

The Ballet Master

Edgar Degas, Vicomte Ludovic Lepic · c. 1876 · monotype (black ink) heightened and corrected with white chalk or wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1964.8.1782

Auguste Renoir, Peaches on a Plate, 1902/1905, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.79

Peaches on a Plate

Auguste Renoir · 1902/1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.79

Two animals with golden yellow, brown, and black fur peer out from behind dense jungle foliage in this stylized, vertical painting. Most of the composition is filled with broadly painted areas of sage, olive, moss, and lemon-lime green to create an impenetrable wall of plants and growth. An oval of slate-blue sky to the left of upper center is framed by plants that grow up and off the top corners of the painting. Small in scale and nestled back among the growth near the lower center, the animal to our right has black eyes that look at or toward us, a long nose, and gray around its mouth and eyes. It has triangular ears and its body, which extends to our right, is dark brown with a lifted tail. To our left, another smaller animal, perhaps a baby, is mostly obscured by a fern frond and grass. This animal has small black eyes and chestnut-brown and black fur. Three large, stylized flowers with fuchsia-pink centers and pale petals grow above the animals, to our left. An oversized white hyacinth grows to our right. A narrow, brick-red bird sits on a branch above the pink flowers, almost lost among the plants. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “Henri Julien Rousseau 1909.”
Henri Rousseau, The Equatorial Jungle, 1909, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.213

The Equatorial Jungle

Henri Rousseau · 1909 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.213

Paul Cezanne, Banks of the Seine at Médan, 1880-1885, watercolor and graphite, Florian Carr Fund, 2013.102.1

Banks of the Seine at Médan

Paul Cezanne · 1880-1885 · watercolor and graphite ·  Accession ID  2013.102.1

Paul Cezanne, Study of a Rock [verso], c. 1895, watercolor on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.27.b

Study of a Rock [verso]

Paul Cezanne · c. 1895 · watercolor on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1995.47.27.b

Paul Cezanne, Self-Portrait [recto], 1897/1900, graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.27.a

Self-Portrait [recto]

Paul Cezanne · 1897/1900 · graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1995.47.27.a

Paul Gauguin, Two Tahitians Gathering Fruit [recto], 1899/1900, traced monotype, printed twice, in brown and ocher on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.41.a

Two Tahitians Gathering Fruit [recto]

Paul Gauguin · 1899/1900 · traced monotype, printed twice, in brown and ocher on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1995.47.41.a

Bibliography

1936

  • Vollard, Ambroise. Recollections of a Picture Dealer. Translated by Violet M. MacDonald. Boston, 1936.

1976

  • Fabiani, Martin. Quand j'etais marchand de tableaux. Paris, c. 1976.

1977

  • Russell, John. "Out of nowhere, he became the top art dealer in Paris." Smithsonian 8, no 4 (July 1977): 68+.

1978

  • Monneret, Sophie, L'Impressionnisme et son Époque 4 vols. Paris, 1978-1981:III:56-58.

1994

  • Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa. New York, 1995: 92-93, 425.

1995

  • Cezanne. Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1995: 572.

2006

  • Rabinow, Rebecca, ed. Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, PAtron of the Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.