The Life of Paul Guillaume
Paul Guillaume was a French art dealer who worked first as a mechanic in an automobile garage in Montmartre. During his time working in an auto garage, he found some African sculptures in a delivery of rubber for tyres and organized an exhibition of them in 1911 in the same garage. This display brought him to the attention of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who introduced him to many artists of the beginning of the century in France, such as Pablo Picasso and Marie Laurencin.
Guillaume founded his own art gallery in Paris at rue de Miromesnil. In this gallery, he presented and sold works by Amedeo Modigliani, who painted several portraits of him. He also organized important exhibitions, including the Première Exposition d’Art Nègre et d’Art Océanien in 1919. During the First World War, he exhibited the works of Giorgio de Chirico on the stage of the Vieux-Colombier theatre, and also exhibited André Derain, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Kees van Dongen in his gallery.
Legacy and Collection
In 1922, Guillaume advised and supplied paintings to Albert Barnes. He lived in a large apartment on Avenue du Bois in Paris with his wife, Juliette Marie Léonie Lacaze. Following his death from peritonitis, his wife modified his collection by selling some paintings and acquiring impressionist paintings. Part of the collection, which included works by Cézanne, Renoir, Modigliani, Picasso, Matisse, Derain, and Soutine, was transferred to the French state and eventually became part of the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris.
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