Theo van Gogh : art-dealer, collector, Vincent's brother

With this "homage to Theo van Gogh", the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam inaugurated its new wing, destined to house temporary exhibitions, in June 1999. Through 130 pieces bought or sold by Theo as part of his activities as an art dealer, others from his private collection, which he acquired with his brother Vincent's approval, and documents (letters, photographs, diverse papers, mostly from the Van Gogh Museum archives), the aim of this exhibition was to highlight the personality and activities of Theo, who is better known as the painter Vincent van Gogh's brother and supporter.
Theo's beginnings
Theo van Gogh (1857-1891) first worked as an art dealer in 1873 in the Brussels art gallery owned by his uncle Hendrick van Gogh. A few months later, he was sent to the Hague as an employee of Goupil & Co., an internationally-known Parisian merchant specialised in paintings and engravings who set up numerous branches in Europe and the United States.
A guide for Theo: his brother Vincent
Vincent, his brother and elder by four years, preceded him in this career as early as 1869. He acted as Theo's mentor, guiding him in his reading, his visits to museums and encouraging him to collect prints, in particular reproductions of paintings by contemporary artists. These exchanges continued in Paris, where Theo was sent for the 1878 World Fair. He settled there and around 1880 he became director of the Paris branch of Goupil & Co. at 19 Boulevard Montmartre. As for Vincent, he left Goupil & Co. in 1876 and decided, after much hesitation, to become a painter. In 1886 he came to Paris, staying with his brother, before going two years later to the south of France.

The exhibition first evoked Vincent's youth, with three paintings made in 1884-1885, illustrating the province of Braban where the two brothers grew up.Photographs and documents helped outline the family background: whilst the father was a pastor, three uncles were art dealers, whom actively helped Vincent and Theo in taking up this profession.

Theo as an art-dealer
From 1873 to 1879, Theo, after a short time in Brussels, worked for the Goupil branch in The Hague, a busy artistic centre thanks to a group of painters known as "The Hague School". The Goupil branch largely contributed to the dissemination of their work. Theo became friends with many of these painters. During Theo's stay in Paris from 1880 to 1890, his activities as an art dealer are well documented thanks to letters exchanged with his brother and other artists, but also thanks to the account books of the Goupil establishment kept at the Getty Museum (Los Angeles). The choice of works presented in this exhibition was made using these books.

An accomplished art dealer, Theo offered his customers a choice of paintings, sculptures and graphic art as wide as possible, his activity concentrating mostly on contemporary artists. Although he was bound by the Goupil headquarters' guidelines, he nonetheless had a measure of freedom and he promoted the impressionists and avant-guard artists, friends of his brother (in particular Gauguin).
One room was thus devoted to Theo as a traditional seller, with paintings and sculpture of the fashionable artists that made up most of the sales. Also exhibited were highly valued representatives of the Barbizon School - Corot and Daubigny (of whom 68 and 46 paintings were respectively sold by Theo between 1881 and 1890) - and Millet, Rousseau, Diaz ... along with such stars of the Salon as Gérôme and Meissonier.

Adolphe Goupil
Adolphe Goupil, founder of the society which in 1884 took the name of Boussod & Valadon, was originally a print maker and seller. From the 1830s this trade underwent an unprecedented growth and the highly modern reproduction techniques were elaborated in their workshops at Asnières. It was through the medium of prints that the Salon highlights and works of popular artists were spread by the thousands. A selection of photo engravings and lithographs lent by the Goupil Museum in Bordeaux illustrated this activity.

Theo and Monet
Theo was interested in the impressionists, who were beginning to attract followers. Competing with Durant-Ruel, who was then in trouble, and Georges Petit, the young dealer was to take over an important stake in this market. The last impressionist group exhibition took place in 1886, and as early as the following year, Theo bought paintings by Monet on a regular basis. In 1888, he exhibited paintings by Monet from Antibes on the mezzanine of the gallery. Seventy paintings by Monet passed through his hands. His marketing technique, which consisted of highlighting a single artist, became more and more widely used by other dealers. This helped them to differentiate themselves from the Salons, largely criticised as "big bazaars" where thousands of works were stacked indiscriminately.

Theo and the impressionist painters
Theo also had close relations with Pissarro, whose paintings proved more difficult to sell. During Autumn 1888, he presented a few of the painter's latest works and two years later he devoted an exhibition to him. Degas, who had not exhibited his work since 1882, must have held Theo in a certain esteem as he allowed him to set up a small exhibition of his nudes in January 1888 and a year later an exhibition of a selection of his works. Theo was also interested in Sisley, Renoir, and other such “moderns” as Besnard, Carrière and Raffaëlli.

A new generation
If the Impressionists were beginning to get recognition from the press and the public, the new generation, that of Emile Bernard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Signac, etc., received little interest from collectors. Theo was in contact with some of these painters through his brother Vincent ,who had met them while living in Paris (1886-1888). For a time he helped Gauguin financially and he succeeded in finding buyers for him: however, his efforts to sell his brother's paintings remained to no avail.
The Van Gogh brothers' collection
The last two rooms of the exhibition dealt with pieces collected by the two brothers. These are works by artists they admired (Manet, Monticelli), friends (Corcos), acquired by Theo or exchanged by Vincent for his own paintings (paintings and drawings by Emile Bernard, Laval, Toulouse-Lautrec).