Wikipedia

Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Life and career: cleaning up punctuation and grammar
→‎Legacy: Another portrait
 
(46 intermediate revisions by 29 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{Short description|British art dealer (1869–1939)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more footnotes|date=April 2014}}
Line 5 ⟶ 6:
 
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2014}}
{{infobox person|
[[File:Joseph Duveen.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Joseph Duveen in the 1920s]]
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
'''Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen''' (14 October 1869, Hull – 25 May 1939, London), known as '''Sir Joseph Duveen, Bt.''', between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer, considered one of the most influential [[art dealer]]s of all time.▼
| name = The Lord Duveen
| image = Joseph Duveen.jpg
| caption = Duveen in the 1920s
| birth_date = 14 October 1869
| birth_place = [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1939|5|25|1869|10|14|df=yes}}
| death_place = London, England
| spouse = {{marriage|Elsie Duveen |31 July 1899}}
| children = 1 daughter
| father = [[Joseph Joel Duveen]]
}}
▲'''Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen''' (14 October 1869, Hull – 25 May 1939, London), known as '''Sir Joseph Duveen, Bt.Baronet''', between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer, who was considered one of the most influential [[art dealer]]s of all time.
 
==Life and career==
{{Moresources|section|date=January 2023}}
Joseph Duveen was British by birth, the eldest of thirteen children of Rosetta (Barnett) and [[Joseph Joel Duveen|Sir Joseph Joel Duveen]], a [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[Sephardic]] Jewish immigrant who had set up a prosperous import business in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].{{cn|date=October 2020}} The Duveen Brothers firm became very successful and became involved in trading antiques. Duveen Senior died in 1908; Joseph took over the business, working in partnership with his late father's brother [[Henry J. Duveen]]. He had received a thorough and stimulating education at [[University College School]]. He moved the Duveen company into the risky, but lucrative, trade in [[painting]]s and quickly became one of the world's leading art dealers due to his good eye, sharpened by his reliance on [[Bernard Berenson]], and skilled salesmanship.▼
Joseph Duveen was British by birth, the eldest of thirteen children of Rosetta (Barnett) and [[Joseph Joel Duveen|Sir Joseph Joel Duveen]], a [[History of the Jews in the Netherlands|Dutch-Jewish]] immigrant who had set up a prosperous import business in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
 
▲Joseph Duveen was British by birth, the eldest of thirteen children of Rosetta (Barnett) and [[Joseph Joel Duveen|Sir Joseph Joel Duveen]], a [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[Sephardic]] Jewish immigrant who had set up a prosperous import business in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].{{cn|date=October 2020}} The Duveen Brothersbrothers' firm became very successful and became involved in trading antiques. Duveen Senior died in 1908; Joseph took over the business, working in partnership with his late father's brother [[Henry J. Duveen]]. He had received a thorough and stimulating education at [[University College School]]. He moved the Duveen company into the risky, but lucrative, trade in [[painting]]s and quickly became one of the world's leading art dealers due to his good eye, sharpened by his reliance on [[Bernard Berenson]], and skilled salesmanship.
His success is famously attributed to his observation that "Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money." He made his fortune by buying works of art from declining European aristocrats and selling them to the millionaires of the United States. Duveen's clients included [[Henry Clay Frick]], [[William Randolph Hearst]], [[Henry E. Huntington]], [[Samuel H. Kress]], [[Andrew Mellon]], [[J. P. Morgan]], [[John D. Rockefeller Sr.]], [[Edward T. Stotesbury]], and a Canadian, [[Frank Porter Wood]]. The works that Duveen shipped across the Atlantic remain the core collections of many of the [[United States]]' most famous museums. Duveen played an important role in selling to self-made industrialists on the notion that buying art was also buying upper-class status. He greatly expanded the market, especially for [[Renaissance]] paintings with the help of [[Bernard Berenson]], who certified some questionable attributions, but whose ability to put an artistic personality behind paintings helped market them to purchasers whose dim perception of art history was as a series of biographies of "masters."▼
[[File:Elgin Marbles British Museum.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Elgin Marbles]] on display in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum]]▼
 
His success is famously attributed to his observation that "Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money." He made his fortune by buying works of art from declining European aristocrats and selling them to the millionaires of the United States.
Duveen quickly became enormously wealthy and made many philanthropic donations. He donated paintings to British galleries and gave considerable sums to repair and expand several galleries and museums. Amongst other things, he built the Duveen Gallery of the [[British Museum]] to house the [[Elgin Marbles]] and funded a major extension of the [[Tate Britain|Tate Gallery]]. For his philanthropy, he was knighted in 1919, made a '''Baronet''' of Millbank in the City of Westminster in 1927<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33249 |date=18 February 1927 |page=1111 }}</ref> and raised to the peerage as '''Baron Duveen''' of Millbank in the City of Westminster on 3 February 1933.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33909 |date=7 February 1933 |page=825 }}</ref>▼
 
▲His success is famously attributed to his observation that "Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money." He made his fortune by buying works of art from declining European aristocrats and selling them to the millionaires of the United States. Duveen's clientsClients included [[Henry Clay Frick]], [[William Randolph Hearst]], [[Henry E. Huntington]], [[Samuel H. Kress]], [[Andrew Mellon]], [[J. P. Morgan]], [[John D. Rockefeller Sr.]], [[Edward T. Stotesbury]], and a Canadian, [[Frank Porter Wood]]. The works that Duveen shipped across the Atlantic remain the core collections of many of the [[United States]]' most famous museums. Duveen played an important role in selling to self-made industrialists on the notion that buying art was also buying upper-class status. He greatly expanded the market, especially for [[Renaissance]] paintings with the help of [[Bernard Berenson]], who certified some questionable attributions, but whose ability to put an artistic personality behind paintings helped market them to purchasers whose dim perception of art history was as a series of biographies of "masters."
▲[[File:Elgin Marbles British Museum.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Elgin Marbles]] on display in the Duveen Gallery of the [[British Museum]]]]
▲Duveen quickly became enormously wealthy and made many philanthropic donations. He donated paintings to British galleries and gave considerable sums to repair and expand several galleries and museums. Amongst other things, heHe built the Duveen Gallery of the [[British Museum]] to house the [[Elgin Marbles]] and funded a major extension of the [[Tate Britain|Tate Gallery]].{{fact|date=December For2021}} hisHe philanthropywas also controversial, hesaid wasto knightedhave indamaged 1919,old mademasters aby '''Baronet''overcleaning' ofand Millbankhis inname theis Cityassociated ofwith Westminsterthe inParthenon 1927marbles 'scouring' scandal.<ref name=":0">{{LondonCite Gazettebook |issuelast=33249Titi |datefirst=18 February 1927Catharine |pagetitle=1111The }}</ref>Parthenon Marbles and raisedInternational toLaw the peerage as '''Baron Duveen''' of Millbank in the City of Westminster on 3 February 1933.<ref>{{London Gazette|publisher=Springer |issueyear=339092023 |dateisbn=7 February 1933978-3-031-26356-9 |pagepages=825 148-152}}</ref>
 
==Honours==
For his philanthropy, he was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1919, made a [[Baronet]] of Millbank in the City of Westminster in 1927<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33249 |date=18 February 1927 |page=1111 }}</ref> and raised to the peerage as Baron Duveen of Millbank in the City of Westminster on 3 February 1933.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33909 |date=7 February 1933 |page=825 }}</ref>
 
==Personal life==
Duveen married Elsie (1881–1963), daughter of Gustav Salomon of New York, on 31 July 1899. They had a daughter, Dorothy Rose (1903–1985). She married, firstly, [[Garthwaite baronets|Sir William Francis Cuthbert Garthwaite]], DSC 2nd Bt. (1906–1993), on 23 July 1931 (div. 1937), and secondly, in 1938, Bryan Hartop Burns, B.A., B.Ch., F.R.C.S., Orthopædic Surgeon to [[St. George's Hospital]], of Upper [[Wimpole Street]], London.
 
==Controversy==
Line 24 ⟶ 44:
In 1921, Duveen was sued by Andrée Hahn for $500,000 after making comments questioning the authenticity of a version of the Leonardo painting ''[[La belle ferronnière]]'' that she owned and had planned to sell.<ref>{{cite web|author= ''NYT'' staff |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/11/05/98766364.pdf |title=$500,000 Suit Hangs on da Vinci Fingers: Impressions on Canvas Said to Prove Master Painted Picture Denounced by Duveen |work=The New York Times |date=5 November 1921 |access-date=8 February 2014}}</ref> The case took seven years to come to trial and after the first jury returned an [[open verdict]], Duveen agreed to settle, paying Hahn $60,000 plus court costs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/treasures-from-the-vault-the-man-of-la-belle-ferroniere/ |title=The Man of La Belle Ferronière: A fake Leonardo? The scandalous court case of art dealer Joseph Duveen |first=Emmabeth |last=Nanol |date=May 23, 2013 |website=blogs.getty.edu}}</ref>
 
In recent years, Duveen's reputation has suffered considerably. [[Art restoration|Restorers]] working under his guidance damaged [[Old Master]] panel paintings by scraping off old varnish and giving the paintings a glossy finish. He was also personally responsible for the damaging restoration work done to the Elgin Marbles.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2004.00220.x |first=Elisabeth |last=Kehoe |title=Working hard at giving it away: Lord Duveen, the British Museum and the Elgin marbles |date=November 2004 |journal=Historical Research|volume=77 |issue=198 |pages=503–519 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2004.00220.x }}</ref> Unhappy with the remnants of ancient pigment on the Marbles, he asked his agents to scrub them with sharp tools in order to make them white.<ref name=":0" /> A number of the paintings he sold have turned out to be [[art forgery|fakes]]; it is uncertain whether he knew this when they were sold.{{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}
 
==Legacy==
[[File:Franko-flämischer Meister 002.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The oldest Western panel portrait of a woman, now in the [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington. Photographs prove Duveen significantly altered the hair and headdress to make it look like a [[Pisanello]] of the 1440s.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}} It is now catalogued as by an unknown "Franco-Flemish Master" of about 1410.]]
 
Duveen greatly increased the trade in bringing great works of art from Europe to America. He eventually became "the art dealer", through shrewd planning and his insight into human behaviorbehaviour. If a great painting came onto the market, he had to have it no matter what. He always outbid the opposition and eventually acquired the finest collections. He went to great lengths to purchase great works of art and his network went well beyond American millionaires, English royalty, and art critics. He also relied heavily on valets, maids and butlers of his own household and those of his clients. Because he was capable of making potentially generous payments to top-flight servants, he was often rewarded with information to which other art dealers never had access.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/09/390490687/meet-joseph-duveen-the-savvy-art-dealer-who-sold-european-masterpieces |title=Meet Joseph Duveen, The Savvy Art Dealer Who Sold European Masterpieces |first=Susan |last=Stamberg |website=npr.orgNPR |access-date=2020-03-13 |date=March 9, 2015}}</ref>
 
One incident from Behrman's biography, ''Duveen'', illustrates this. When Duveen was still a young man in his father's employment, a well-to-do couple came into the store to buy tapestries. As the lady was choosing and picking up pieces generously, Duveen's father discreetly asked him to find out who these people were. Duveen went outside to the horseman and was told that the couple were [[Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh|Mr and Mrs. Guinness]]. Duveen wrote their names and slipped it on a piece of paper to his father, when the lady was almost finished she innocently asked "We are buying so many tapestries, you must be wondering why?" Duveen's father immediately beamed and said "Of course not, Lady Guinness, you have so many beautiful homes, you will need more than one tapestry to decorate them!" The Guinnesses were subsequently ennobled in the 1890s; Duveen had successfully flattered Mrs Guinness by addressing her as "Lady Guinness".<ref>{{cite book |last=Behrman |first=S.N. |author-link=S. N. Behrman |title=Duveen: The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time. |year=1952 |oclc=907006708}}</ref>
 
Duveen played a large part in forming many of the collections that are now in North American museums, for example the [[Frick Collection]] in New York, the [[Frank P. Wood]] collection at the [[Art Gallery of Ontario]], the [[Huntington Library]], and the Mellon and Kress collections now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington and elsewhere. Duveen exploited his American clients' wish for immortality through buying great works of art, an ambition in which they were successful: today only economic historians can name the rich partners of Frick, Mellon or Morgan. One of his later clients was [[J. Paul Getty]], who, though he was less interested in paintings, bought from Duveen the second [[Ardabil Carpet]]. Duveen had always kept a stocknumber of grand [[French furniture]] and tapestries in stock.
 
Duveen's portrait was painted by many artists, but his best painter-friend was the Swiss-born American artist [[Adolfo Müller-Ury]] (1862–1947), who painted him three times, in 1923, 1929 and 1938. The 1923 portrait was reproduced on the cover of [[Meryle Secrest]]'s 2004 biography, and later sold at [[TEFAF]] Maastricht in 2006 for $95,000. Müller-Ury also painted a full-length standing portrait of his daughter Dorothy as a girl in 1914, and in 1924, at the time of her engagement, a bust-length portrait, which was exhibited the following year at Müller-Ury's exhibition at Duveen Brothers as 'Miss X'. [[Dorothy Elaine Vicaji]] also painted Dorothy.<ref name=ILS26>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWLh5rvSJRcC&dq=Dorothy+Elaine+Vicaji&pg=PA1064|title=The Illustrated London News|date=February 23, 1926|publisher=Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited|via=Google Books}}</ref>
 
Lord Duveen died in May 1939 aged 69 and is buried in the [[Willesden United SynagogueJewish Cemetery]] in London, UK. The baronetcy and barony became extinct upon his death.
 
==Arms==
Line 45 ⟶ 65:
|crest = In front of a Garb Or banded Azure two Trefoils in saltire slipped Vert
|supporters = On either side a Lion guardant Gules charged on the shoulder with a Plate thereon a Chinese Dragon Azure
|motto = Honor Industriae Praemium {{cncitation needed|date=October 2020}} }}
 
== In popular culture ==
According to ''[[The New Yorker]]'', the character played by [[Adrien Brody]] in Wes Anderson's ''[[The French Dispatch]]'' is inspired by Duveen.<ref name="NYW">{{cite webmagazine |title=A Look at Wes Anderson’sAnderson's New, New Yorker-Inspired Film |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-look-at-wes-andersons-new-new-yorker-inspired-film |publishermagazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=February 11, 2020}}</ref>
 
A popular Broadway play called ''Lord Pengo'' by [[S. N. Behrman]] and starring [[Charles Boyer]] was staged in 1962; the title character was clearly based on Duveen.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chapman|first=John|date=November 20, 1962|title='Lord Pengo' Gently Civilized|work=Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81416534/lord-pango/|access-date=July 14, 2021}}</ref>
 
==References and sources==
Line 76 ⟶ 98:
{{s-end}}
 
{{Tate}}
{{Authority control}}
 
Line 90 ⟶ 113:
[[Category:English Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery]]
[[Category:Barons created by George V]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Duveen,_1st_Baron_Duveen"