Léonce Rosenberg

The idea of reconstructing the interior space of an art collector has several advantages. Not only does it showcase artistic dialogues rather than individual artworks but it also gives a sense of the spirit of the place that served as their setting. In Paris until 19 May the Picasso Museum is presenting over one floor the reconstruction of the apartment of Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947) on Rue de Longchamps as it was between 1928 and 1929.

Giovanni Casini

The process has proved remarkably worthwhile. The layout has a major visual power, creating the impression – as the co-curator of the exhibition Giovanni Casini explains – of a “total work of art”. The entrance hall of the man who was Picasso’s dealer between 1915 and 1919 is dedicated to a commission by Giorgio de Chirico, the Italian surrealist artist who is as fascinating as he is complex.

Pablo Picasso

Here he has produced a series of monumental decadent images of satirical gladiators, a mishmash of grotesque intertwined bodies, in addition to other paintings of a “post Commedia dell Arte” genre by the futurist Gino Severini.

Ironic take on masculinity

Giorgio de Chirico

“The gladiators are clearly an ironic take on masculinity and not an apology for fascism, contrary to what we have sometimes heard,” explains Giovanni Casini.  The dining room is a showcase for names that have been forgotten today which nonetheless deserve to resurface. Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) and Georges Valmier (1885-1937) were artists who produced work in a form of late colourful cubism. They created series of abstract forms in spiral curves.

Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia

The best part is in his wife’s bedroom where Francis Picabia, the mischievous surrealist, practiced what he called his “Transparencies”. He created a “unity of decoration” – this is according to the dealer – in which mythological figures are superimposed over vegetation or animals. Hands caress female bodies, faces look at you… There’s dancing too in this Picabia dreamland. This visual superimposition seems to have been inspired by photography.

Controversial character

Max Ernst

The exhibition is a surprise in the sense that Léonce Rosenberg is now a controversial character. History favours his brother Paul Rosenberg (1882-1955) who was also in the art business, and who staged among other things the first museum exhibition of Picasso in 1932. Léonce profited from the troubles of Picasso’s German dealer, Kahnweiler, following the First World War. 1,200 artworks sold at auction in two years for which he was the expert. But he had a good eye. He saw beyond the major movements.

Auguste Herbin

Mondrian

“He was the first person to display Mondrian in 1921. He believed in abstraction but he had to adapt. He intermingled styles like cubism and classicism. He went on to have a major influence on the 20^th century,” confirms Giovanni Casini.

Paul Rosenberg

Gino Severeni

However it was his brother Paul who secured the artists and the legacy. The painter Ozenfant described the brothers like this: “Paul was a very skilful broker while the other was an aristocrat with great taste and a terrible head for business.” Léonce ended up being a victim of the Wall Street Crash in 1929 and the total-art-work apartment disappeared as fleetingly as a dream. Finally a lesson for the art market…

Dans l’appartement de Léonce Rosenberg

Until 19 May. www.museepicassoparis.fr/f