Jewish Dealers and the European Art Market, c. 18601940: Negotiating Cultural Modernity

(Hardback)

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Before the tragedy of the Holocaust, many of the leading art and antiques dealers across Europe were Jewish, establishing dynamic cross-Channel, international and transatlantic networks. Aside from a few famous examples, however, we are only at the beginning of exploring the diversity of Jewish dealers' commercial and cultural worlds in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and reflecting on the particular conditions that made possible their dramatic expansion within the profession. Adopting a wider geography than any previous study, and bringing together a distinguished team of international contributors, this is the first book to consider Jewish dealers as an interconnected cohort, tied together by common processes and strategies, but also a common vulnerability. After an extended introduction, the volume presents case studies and trends from the mid 19th to mid 20th century, including: Jewish family businesses in Western Europe; the role of Jews as mediators of art from East Asia; the antisemitism and suspicion faced by Jewish dealers; Jews as theorists, exhibition makers and promoters of modern art ; and the migration, collaboration and reinvention of Jewish dealers in often precarious times. The essays track the diverse range of activities in which Jewish art dealers were involved in the period 1860-1940, and the different geographical, political, financial and cultural contexts they negotiated. With a wide variety of illustrations, including paintings, the decorative arts, historic photographs and archival material, the volume adopts a mix of methodological approaches to analyse a key chapter in Jewish cultural history and in the history of the international art market. Includes Afterword by Charles Dellheim, author of Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern (2021).

Author Bio

Silvia Davoli is Curator at Strawberry Hill House and Garden (The Horace Walpole Collection), UK and Research Associate at the University of Oxford, UK. Specialising in the history of collecting, connoisseurship and provenance, Silvia has published numerous articles internationally on Italian, French and English collecting. Tom Stammers was Associate Professor of Modern European Cultural History at the University of Durham; in September 2024 he became Reader in Cultural and Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK. A specialist in collecting, Tom has published widely on French, British and European cultural history in the long 19th century.