Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henri

Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henri (b Mannheim, 25 June 1884; d Paris, 11 Jan. 1979). German-born art dealer, publisher, and writer, who became a French citizen in 1937. In 1907 he opened a gallery in Paris. His first purchases were of Fauvist works, but he is best known as the friend and promoter of the Cubists. In 1912 Braque and Picasso signed contracts giving Kahnweiler exclusive rights to buy their entire outputs. He was also a friend and supporter of Juan Gris, of whom he wrote a standard biography (1947). As a publisher he brought out numerous books illustrated by his artist friends. In 1961 he published an autobiography, Mes galeries et mes peintres; in the introduction to the English translation, My Galleries and Painters (1971), John Russell wrote: ‘Where the old-style dealers did their artists a favour by inviting them to luncheon, Kahnweiler lived with Picasso, Braque, Gris, Derain, and Vlaminck on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis. The important thing was not so much that they should sell as that they should be free to get on with their work; and Kahnweiler, by making this possible, helped to bring into being what now seems to us that last great flowering of French art.’