Ambroise Vollard: "Poppy Field"

"Poppy Field" by Vincent Van Gogh

"Battle of Huningen" by Detaille

"There was another visitor who came back every day towards evening. He would begin by casting a glance at the window, where Van Gogh's 'Poppy Field' was blazing, and then come into the shop and walk round. After a bit he would begin to talk. He was unwearied in his enthusiasm for the 'Poppy Field.' One day I missed him at his usual hour. He did not turn up again till several days later.

'I haven't been able to come all this time. My wife has just had a little girl. We are already thinking of her future, and we have decided, by way of dowry for her, to buy things that are bound to go up in value - pictures, for instance.' Instinctively, I glanced towards the 'Poppy Field.' My man followed the glance. 'If I had money to spare,' he said, 'that painting would have been in my house by now. But, you see, I have a child on my hands now. I must take life seriously. Fortunately, I have a cousin, a professor of drawing of the City of Paris, who will be able to advise us.'

It was some time before I saw my man again, and then one fine day he reappeared with a portfolio under his arm. 'It's done,' he announced. He tapped the portfolio, 'The little one's dowry is in here!' He took out a 'Fantasia' by Detaille. 'My cousin managed to get this for me for only fifteen thousand francs. In twenty years' time it will be worth at least a hundred thousand.'

About twenty-five years later, the man with the Detaille watercolour came into my shop in the rue de Martignac. 'Now,' he said sadly, 'the time has come to part with it. My daughter is getting married.' I asked him if he remembered my Van Gogh exhibition, and the poppy picture that he appeared to like so much. 'That's a long while ago,' he said. 'Fortunately I kept my head. What would a picture dealer give me nowadays for that?' 'Well, my friend, you'd get more than three hundred thousand francs.'

'What about my Detaille, then?' 'Your Detaille! The Musée du Luxembourg had what was considered his masterpiece - the 'Battle of Huningen' - taken up to the garret, and even the rats won't look at it.'"

To be continued

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