57
production of a show of the work of the Italian
futurists at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery that he
directed from 1906 through 1924.
T.A.M.: So the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac show will focus on the arts of Africa?
P.P.: Yes, absolutely, because that exhibition’s
subject is Fénéon’s connection to the so-called arts
nègres, as it was known at the time. The show
opens with a presentation about the man and
his many aspects, featuring a portrait of him by
Maximilien Luce (fig. 1). It goes on to investigate
the development of his interest in African art,
which was undoubtedly nourished by his contacts
with people like dealer Paul Guillaume, as well
as with his friend Lucie Cousturier, a fascinating
woman—a student of Signac’s and an anarchist
who worked with the Senegalese troops at the
Fréjus training camps, teaching them to read
and write and introducing them to painting (fig.
6). This part of the exhibition also looks at the
depth of Fénéon’s commitment to the promotion
of African art through the many articles he wrote
that appeared in the Bulletin de la vie artistique,
which he published through the Bernheim-Jeune
gallery between 1920 and 1926.
The third part of the show is devoted to
Fénéon’s activities as a collector. At the time of his
death, he owned more than 540 pieces of tribal
art, and that was a truly astonishing number
at the time. These were mostly African objects,
but there were also some Oceanic (fig. 2) and
American ones, as can be seen in the catalog for
the auction of his collection that was held on June
11 & 13, 1947, at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Our
research has enabled us to identify about 150 of
these pieces, and about a hundred of them will be
shown in the exhibition. It is regrettable that these
numbers aren’t bigger, but finding even the ones
we were able to track down was a real challenge
because very little information on Fénéon’s
collection is available. This may seem paradoxical,
not only because he was a prolific author
and a major player on the art scene who was
acquainted with everyone in it, but also because
he was known to have kept meticulous records
in notebooks with methodical descriptions of the
objects that entered his collection. Unfortunately,
none of this documentary evidence has survived.
He had no interest in self-promotion and lived
discreetly. Toward the end, he orchestrated the
dispersal of his archives and his collection with an
initial auction in 1941 and a second in 1947.
T.A.M.: Do we at least know how his path as a
collector began? Or what dealers he bought from?
I.C.: Not with much certainty, unfortunately.
The first date for which we have any evidence
is 1923. That year, Fénéon lent a group of
heddle pulleys from West Africa to the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs de Paris for an exhibition
there. These works are mentioned in the catalog
that accompanied the show. Given Fénéon’s
connections with the Parisian avant-garde scene,
it is certainly plausible to suggest that he began to
acquire African artworks well before then.
P.P.: Absolutely. Several witnesses and sources
agree that Fénéon was one of the first collectors
of African objects as works of art rather than as
artifacts of strictly ethnographic interest. One of
these was Jean Laude, who in his 1968 book La
peinture française et « l’art nègre » (1905–1914)
stated that the collection’s beginnings dated to
1904, sadly, without citing any sources for that
assertion. Upon reflection, that does make sense.
Fénéon was almost forty-five years old at the
FIG. 6 (right):
Lucie Cousturier,
La lecture.
Watercolor on paper.
Private collection.
Photo © J.–C. Louiset.
FIG. 7 (below):
Heddle pulley.
Guro; Côte d’Ivoire.
19th century.
Wood. H: 23 cm.
Ex F. Fénéon, no. 163; F.
Fénéon sale, 1947c, no. 51;
acquired by editor Louis
Broder, Paris, 1947.
Musée du Quai Branly –
Jacques Chirac, Paris, donated
by Florence Marinot, inv.
73.1975.1.1.
Photo © Musée du Quai
Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris.