THE VOLLARD DONATION
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Baigneuse debout en pied (Full figure of woman standing bathing), around 1896
The Vollard donation
As an art dealer and editor, there is no doubt that Ambroise Vollard had a decisive influence on art in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies. In his long career, spanning five decades, the works of about 200 artists passed through his hands. He supported his contemporaries: Gauguin, Van Gogh, as well as Cezanne, whose first individual exhibition he organised in 1895. While historically not acting as art dealer for the Impressionists, he did represent a number of them, such as Renoir and Degas. He also supported the painters of the Pont-Aven school, the Nabis, the Fauvists, Odilon Redon, Pablo Picasso in his early years and later Georges Rouault and Marc Chagall.
In 1911, at the request of Marius and Ary Leblond, his compatriots and founders of the Leon-Dierx museum and art gallery, the art dealer donated only two paintings to the newly created museum. He selected two artists from among those he was at the time supporting. These belonged to the artistic movement referred to as Fauvism. The first was Louis Valtat, with his painting Mer et rochers rouges (Sea and red rocks) and the other was Maurice de Vlaminck with Bouquet de Fleurs (Bunch of flowers)
The art dealer died accidentally in 1939 but due to the outbreak of the war, all decisions concerning his collection, consisting of several thousands of works of art, were suspended. In 1947, Lucien Vollard, his younger brother, decided to donate some of these works to the Leon-Dierx museum, which now became an art gallery. He requested the help of Marius and Ary Leblond, who selected 26 paintings, 25 drawings, 11 sculptures, 8 decorative works and 87 etchings, most of them edited by Ambroise Vollard: a total of 157 works, representing 63 avant-garde artists supported by the art dealer.
Odilon Redon, Femmes devant la fleur merveilleuse (Women before the magic flower), around 1895
Le choix des Leblond
Cette sélection doit beaucoup aux Leblond, soucieux de constituer un ensemble pédagogique et encyclopédique de l’art moderne, complémentaire des collections initiales du musée. Il ne s’agit plus de jeunes artistes comme en 1911, mais d’artistes contemporains confirmés et devenus célèbres : Gustave Caillebotte, Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis, etc.
La collection présente toutes les écoles les plus importantes de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle au début du XXe siècle : le pré-impressionnisme, l’impressionnisme, le néo-impressionnisme, le fauvisme, le symbolisme. De plus, cette donation représentative de l'activité de Vollard marchand et éditeur, comporte de nombreuses lithographies, gravures, et autres techniques d’impression d’estampes emblématiques de l’histoire de cet art depuis Édouard Manet.
Ce don exceptionnel transforme radicalement le musée Léon-Dierx. Musée d'art et d'histoire de La Réunion depuis son ouverture en 1912, il devient en 1947 un musée des beaux-arts à part entière. Grâce à ce don, il possède la plus grande collection d'art moderne française en dehors du territoire métropolitain, faisant aussi de lui le premier musée des beaux-arts des outre-mer français.
Depuis les années 1980, ce fonds d’art moderne est constamment enrichi. Les estampes et les livres d’art édités par Ambroise Vollard sont privilégiés dans la politique d’acquisition, venant ainsi conforter le cœur de la donation composée essentiellement de multiples.
