Stalking Art

As my friend Gaye will tell you, there is a point at which I stop "shopping" and start "stalking." For the last year or so, I have been stalking turn of the century French prints. I surf the Web, order out-of-print art books online, travel to strange galleries in out of the way locations. So far, I have managed to keep this a dirty little secret. Only my friend Theresa has seen me in action in a little gallery we happened to wander into in Aspen, and I think I caught her completely off guard. But now, the secret is out.

Every addiction needs an enabler, and in this case it is our friend Keith. Keith is an American living in London where he teaches at a business school. When I met Keith, he took me to his favorite galleries in England. I bought my first print, and I haven’t rested easy since.

Now, should I look for Puvis, or Shotter-Boys today?

If you think I have it bad, you need to meet Keith. London real estate being what it is, he lives in a tiny basement apartment. He has boxes with literally thousands of prints under his bed. Now, I have art under my bed, too, but I am a rank amateur at storing art under the bed compared to Keith.

Keith – aka "The Enabler"

One of the gallery owners here described Keith as someone who is very focused and buys very cleverly. I am pretty random, but Keith has taught me that you can own fun, interesting art for a modest investment.

It just requires major stalking to find it!

Many of the art galleries on the Left Bank are located along the Rue de Seine.

Rue de Seine

Many of them are tiny storefronts, one right after another. Keith has a close relationship with Arsene Bonafous-Murat and his daughter-in-law, Helene, so we started at their gallery. Helene was on vacation, but Arsene is delightful. He insists that he has a "print shop" and not a "gallery."

Doreen Stalking Puvis

You enter the shop, and the walls are lined with shelves containing many portfolios of prints. They are all labeled on the spines, but the filing system is somewhat "fluid", so it always helps to ask if you are looking for something in particular. Keith was picking up a rare book he had bought from their auction (Helene placed the bids for him), and mentioned a set of prints by a Symbolist artist named DuMont he was searching for. Arsene scratched his head, pulled out a folio – and there was the complete set!

Is this a Puvis?

It was a day for minor miracles. I did my Senior paper on a relatively obscure British artist named Thomas Shotter Boys. He worked at the end of the 18th century when all the Brits were taking "Grand Tours" of Europe and publishing travel narratives. (Sound familiar?) Shotter Boys was the first to make publish a series of prints using color lithography (the scene is drawn on stone with a wax crayon). He did a series of views of Paris, and my paper was about the book – why he selected these particular images, and how was he pandering to his audience who basically wanted these books as "post cards". Yale had a lot of the old travel books (diaries) in its library (I am sure no one had touched them for 150 years) and I read a lot of them for the paper. Anyway, I always ask about him in British art galleries, but he is never available. Dan thought I was asking about a group – the "Shotter Boys". Well, we walked into Arsene’s gallery and there was a lithograph from the book right on the wall!

Shotter-Boys does Notre Dame, and Rue Marmoset. Not a Puvis.

The scene at the left is the "Porte Rouge" at Notre Dame. Dan found the real "Red Door" and took a photo for me. You can see a lot of the details have not changed in over 200 years.

The "real" Red Door.

When I went to grad school, I changed my focus to medieval manuscripts. Like the pictures and travel writing, I have always been interested in the combination of the word and image. Hence, the current interest in turn of the century French prints. Art was "happening" in Paris at this time – a lot of exhibitions, posters advertising a variety of products, elaborate programs for the theatre. And the "artists" did all of what we would now consider "commercial art", too. Toulouse-Lautrec is famous for his posters for the Moulin Rouge nightclub. Other artists were just as active. I am interested in how the "words" become part of the design, and everything works together to convey the information and capture a mood.

Dan is also very fond of some posters Picasso did in the 50’s and 60’s. He was living in the South of France, and got interested in pottery. Each year he would do a poster for the ceramics exhibition. He was also spending a lot of time at the bullfights, and did posters advertising them, too. We first saw one a year ago in Paris, but didn’t know enough about them to feel comfortable buying one. We did some research, felt better about it, went back three days later and it was sold!

Because we enjoyed the posters of the ceramics so much, we decided to see about buying some of the ceramics as well. Picasso was very prolific in all aspects of his life, and the pottery was no exception. The first day we were in Paris we found several stores that sell some of his pieces. Since it WAS the first day, we said we would return, and we have several times. One gallery owner is so taken with us, that when we walk in, he stops his other business to chat, and to introduce us to his clients and associates. THAT is a nice gallery owner, even if he is laughing about our many visits to his shop!

Doreen looking for Picasso Posters. No Puvis here!

This is where the "stalking" comes in. Dan and I had been to the Picasso poster gallery a few days before Keith arrived. Lucien had three of the Picasso’s (although not one of the ones we were stalking). We returned to this gallery with Keith. Two of those had been sold! But Lucien told us he was "meeting someone who might sell him some more" on the 15th. In the meantime, I found one of the posters at another gallery, and was nervous about someone snatching it up. So we stopped by to see Lucien on the 13th, and he told us to come back on the 17th, again saying he was going to try, but he didn’t know if he would be able to buy anything. We walked in on the 17th, and he said, "It is a good day for art." Sure enough, he had two of our favorite posters, and a couple of others we really liked. We bought them, and have been by almost daily to see him to work out the details of the shipping and to look at some of the rare art books he also sells. When he gets tired of us, he dismisses us from the gallery, but he is always very gallant about throwing us out.

Picasso Bullfight Poster

Another Bullfight Poster

Picasso Ceramics Poster

Another Ceramics Poster

In the meantime, the stalking continued. Keith took us to a gallery that sells antique posters. I fell in love with a small lithograph that was the menu cover for an annual dinner of "Les Cent Bibliophiles" (the 100 Booklovers). Many used books are sold by the Bouqinistas from little stands along the Seine. The menu shows a woman admiring the books, while a Maurice Chevalier type admires her.

The Poster Gallery. No Puvis here, either!

Young Lady Book Lover

We didn’t buy it that day (where would the fun in stalking be), but I returned to the shop many times to "visit" it. It is funny how things change over time. I was determined to buy a little Bonnard print I had seen, but when I went back and took a look at it, I decided that if I hadn’t known it was a Bonnard, I wouldn’t have been interested.

I spent a lot of time wandering into galleries and hefting these huge portfolios on and off the shelves. Often, the gallery owners would not even speak to me – even though I was there rifling through their things. Our worst experience was with the "Mean Picasso Lady". Every time we go in there, she is incredibly rude. One night she was getting annoyed, and I suggested to Dan we leave. Usually he has no patience with these rude people, but he decided he was going to stick around just to annoy her. She finally threw us out.

But we have had pleasant experiences, too. One gallery owner took us into his back storage to see all this "stuff" even though he clearly was used to people who came in with a more specific idea of what they wanted. He didn’t throw us out until after he spent a significant amount of time with us, and he was very gentle when he did.

Sometimes I would strike up conversations with some of the gallery owners, who clearly were relieved that I understood what I was talking about. I was rifling through the prints in a small gallery when an American woman of a certain age, swooped in and asked about a sculpture she saw in the window. She knew nothing about the artist, yet proceeded to try to tell the gallery owner the piece was not worth that much to her. The owner explained she was selling it on commission for the artist’s son, and he set the price. The American wouldn’t let go – she was just so awful! When she left, I made a comment and asked what percent of her customers were art dealers, etc. To her credit, she said that having a mix of dealers, serious collectors and casual buyers makes her days more interesting. And she smiled and laughed off the rude woman.

The same could be said about the Parisian gallery owners. There are many ways to be thrown out of a gallery. We prefer the gentle touch.

A Gentle Touch

HERE is the Puvis! A present for Dan who never in his wildest dreams thought he would own one.

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