Ambroise Vollard: The Havemeyers

"Les Glaçons (The Ice Floes)" by Monet

"Mary Cassatt once said to me: 'I've been talking to Mr. Havemeyer about you. So do put all your best things aside for him. You know who I mean by Havemeyer?' Did I know! Havemeyer, the sugar king! While selecting the pictures I thought worthy of being submitted to him, I kept saying to myself, 'If I had his power I would dazzle the world not by my magnificence, but by the simplicity of my life. I wouldn't have a yacht. I wouldn't have special trains made up for me. I wouldn't hire an entire palace. I wouldn't encumber myself with numerous staff...' 

I had got thus far in my meditations when a very shabby cab stopped at my door. A gentleman, very simply dressed, got out and entered the shop. I cursed the intruder. Suppose Mr. Havemeyer were to arrive suddenly, and I had to keep him waiting while I sold an engraving perhaps! As a matter of fact, it was some Cézannes that the stranger wanted to see. He chose two, and gave me his card. It was Mr. Havemeyer.

On another day I was showing him some pictures. 'How much is that Cézanne?' he asked all at once, looking at the 'Aqueduc aux pins parasols.' 'Fifteen thousand francs.' 'I'll have it,' he said. Then, as though to excuse his haste in buying it, asked his wife, 'Doesn't the background remind you of the fresco we admired so much at Pompeii?' He went on gazing at the Cézanne, murmuring: 'I wonder what there is in it that reminds one of so many things?'

Mr. Havemeyer was usually advised in his purchases by Mary Cassatt. She had persuaded him that he could make no better use of his money, since his pictures were to enrich the artistic heritage of the United States. I particularly remember two pictures by Goya that she made him buy when he was on a trip through Spain: a woman with a ring on her finger, and, best of all, 'The Balcony.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Recollections of a Picture Dealer" by Ambroise Vollard.)