Who Was Paul Durand-Ruel?
The Early Days of Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922), born to shopkeepers Jean Durand and Marie Ruel, was a staunch supporter and art dealer of the unappreciated and reviled French Impressionists. It can be said that Paul Durand-Ruel gave the world the Impressionists and their paintings and that we enjoy them due to his vision.
It started by Paul Durand-Ruel “inheriting a successful picture gallery from his parents in 1865. He initially continued the shop’s traditional activities such as framing and conservation, renting pictures to amateur artists for copying, and buying and selling art.
He soon began to assert his own taste, shifting the gallery’s focus toward more innovative artists, including Eugène Delacroix, Jean-François Millet, and Gustave Courbet. Sales of their work built the firm’s reputation and financed the dealer’s increasingly adventurous and risky enterprises.” – Philadelphia Museum of Art
The New Style: Impressionism
Paul Durand-Ruel faced heavy criticism and derision for his support of the new emerging painters that he so strongly believed in. His young wife died at 30 years of age leaving him with five young children.
By his sheer determination he raised his family and promoted the new style of art coined “Impressionism”; the reflection of light off objects and the relationship of light between one object and another. For 20 years, between 1981 and 1980 he purchased their works so that they did not face starvation and eviction even though this caused him near personal bankruptcy on numerous occasions.
He spent hundreds of thousands of francs on pictures by the unknown and unpopular French Impressionists. Between 1890-1910 Durand-Ruel was the most well known art dealer of French Impressionism in the world. Between 1891 and 1922, he spent millions on 12,000 paintings, including roughly 1,000 Monets, 1,500 Renoirs, 800 Pissarros, 400 each by Degas and Sisley, some 200 Manets and almost 400 Mary Cassatts.
Paul supported and bought paintings from Renoir and Monet and even renamed Renoir’s painting titled ‘Two Sisters’ to ‘On the Terrace’.
Durand-Ruel and his family were the subject of many of Renoir’s paintings including a portrait of the art dealer himself and family members Jeanne, Charles and George.
Due to Paul Durand-Ruel’s amazing foresight we can now all enjoy these wonderful pieces of art. What a legacy he has left for the world.
Further Reading on Paul Durand-Ruel
To fully appreciate this amazing entrepreneur and his gift to the world here’s some further reading.
Exhibition on Screen has a DVD that explores the life of Durand-Ruel and his amazing connection to the French Impressionists and their work – exhibitiononscreen.
To read more about Pierre-Auguste Renoir whom Durand supported and bought paintings from, see our post Pierre-Auguste Renoir – A French Impressionist Painter.
Durand also helped Claude Monet by purchasing and exhibiting his artwork. Our posts Claude Monet’s Garden at Giverny, France and Claude Monet’s House at Giverny, France have more on the amazing French Impressionist and his home and garden.
