|| 5 March 2017

21 Rue La Boétie Exhibit

What would artists do without art dealers and galleries to show and promote their work? Without Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg, the careers and reputations of such artists as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse and Marie Laurencin surely would not have experienced stellar heights as rapidly. Nor would those artists likely have earned as generous sums for their art.

Currently the Musée Maillol, Paris, is exhibiting 60 of the finest works by Picasso, Braque, Léger, Laurencin, Matisse and others that the Rosenberg gallery represented. The exhibition is titled “21 Rue La Boétie,” the Rosenberg Paris gallery’s address. “21 Rue La Boétie” is also the title of the 2012 book chic French certain age journalist Anne Sinclair wrote about her grandfather Paul Rosenberg’s art gallery. Mme Sinclair has assisted with the Musée Maillol exhibit.

February 2016 in a 5 o'Clock Tea with Anne Barone, I featured Anne Sinclair’s book (titled “My Grandfather’s Gallery” in the USA) as tea reading. Many paintings in this Musée Maillol exhibit are discussed in the book — including Picasso’s painting of Anne Sinclair’s mother and grandmother.

While the names Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Matisse are likely familiar. Marie Laurencin might not be. The Frenchwoman, born in Paris in 1883, was one of the few female Cubist painters. As Anne Sinclair relates in her book, in 1952 when she was four — and the artist in her late 60s — Paul Rosenberg commissioned Marie Laurencin to paint his granddaughter’s portrait. The little girl was extremely proud of her blue eyes, and she emphatically pointed out this physical trait to the artist. The result was a portrait in which Anne Sinclair’s eyes are rendered a startlingly blue color.

Ten years later Anne Sinclair, with her family, visited Picasso at his home. When Picasso expressed a desire to paint a portrait of Anne Sinclair, the teenager was well aware of how women appeared in Picasso paintings. She reports she ran from Picasso’s presence screaming “No!” Anne Sinclair did agree to have her photo taken with the artist.