Vollard, Ambroise

Vollard, Ambroise (1866–1939). French dealer, connoisseur, publisher, and writer, one of the most important champions of avant-garde art in the early 20th century. He was a lawyer by training and began his career in the art world by buying prints from the quayside stalls along the River Seine. He opened a gallery at 39 rue Laffitte, Paris, in 1893, moved to better premises at 6 rue Laffitte the following year, and in 1895 gave the first major exhibition of Cézanne's work. From that time up to the outbreak of the First World War the gallery was one of the city's most important centres of innovative art, other landmark events including the first one-man exhibitions of Picasso (1901) and Matisse (1904). The clientele included some of the leading collectors of the day, among them Barnes, Morozov, and Gertrude and Leo Stein. In addition to buying and selling paintings, Vollard played an important role as a publisher by encouraging his artists to work as printmakers. He commissioned them to illustrate books (literary classics as well as contemporary works) and also issued independent portfolios of prints: ‘My idea was to order engravings from artists who were not professional engravers. What might have been looked upon as a hazardous venture, turned out to be a great artistic success.’ These publications (often commercial failures) were a kind of private passion, financed by his successful picture dealing, and he spared neither time nor money to achieve the finest results. The first work to bear his imprint was a portfolio of 12 colour lithographs by Bonnard entitled Quelques Aspects de la vie de Paris (1895), and his most famous publication was Picasso's Vollard Suite, consisting of 100 etchings on various themes (notably The Sculptor's Studio) made between 1930 and 1937. Vollard's portrait was painted many times, among others by Bonnard, Cézanne, Picasso, Renoir, and Rouault. His writings include books on Cézanne, Degas, and Renoir and the autobiographical Recollections of a Picture Dealer (1936); a slightly expanded French version, Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux, appeared in 1937.