Recollections of a Picture Dealer

A captivating account of the Parisian art world at the turn of the twentieth century, these memoirs offer firsthand impressions of Manet, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Vuillard, and other famous artists. Art merchant and socialite Ambroise Vollard (1867-1939) possessed a keen ability to recognize genius in painters as well as a natural warmth and candor, a combination of traits that earned him the friendship of a generation of artists. "Recollections of a Picture Dealer recounts his early efforts to sell the works of Cezanne; his portrait sittings for Renoir, Rouault, Bonnard, Forain, and Picasso; and his social encounters with such artists as Degas, Odilon Redon, and Rodin, as well as with writers Gertrude Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire, Mallarme, and Zola. Unabridged republication of the original (1936) English-language edition, translated by Violet M. Macdonald. Index. 33 illustrations.