The Paris Orsay Museum of Modern Art has opened on September 28th 1999 an exhibition titled «Theo Van Gogh, Art dealer, collector and brother of Vincent» focussing on the way the art market was run during the 19th Century. This exhibition will end on January 9th 2000. The name of Van Gogh is a sure guarantee for any museum when it comes to attract thousands of visitors in their premises. Already the Orsay Museum organised in 1998 an exhibition titled «Millet-Van Gogh» which met considerable success. Then the Grand Palais was crowded daily when it showed the collection of Dr Gachet, Vincent's close friend.
This new exhibition will surely meet as many entries as the previous ones focussing on Vincent Van Gogh though the latter will have a discreet role at Orsay with only nine of his works shown there.
Its main aim is to focus on the activity of the art market in France between 1880 and 1890 through the life of Theo Van Gogh, who was employed by the Goupil & Co gallery which later became the Boussod, Valadon & Co.
Theo Van Gogh was hired by Goupil for their branch in The Hague in 1873 and obtained to be transferred to Paris in 1879 before becoming the manager of one of the galleries belonging to this company and situated 19, Bd Montmartre.
He worked for Goupil until his death from syphilis in 1891 and bought works from many artists, dealers and collectors.
The Goupil Gallery had several branches abroad and run a much lucrative business selling paintings, engravings and reproductions throughout the world.
It made profits according to one simple motto : «Sell what people like», which remains a major argument today.
Theo was asked to take no risks and somewhat stuck to such principle as he took no initiative to help his brother Vincent in that respect. To some extent he however tried more than once to convince buyers to show some interest in the works of some Impressionist and Symbolist painters.
The bulk of his activity was concentrating on the sale of academic works by such artists as Detaille, Bouguereau, Meissonnier or Gerome.
The exhibition shows that a painting by Detaille was worth between US $ 50,000 and 160,000 of today whereas a work by Monet would sell at about US $ 2,000.
Theo did buy some paintings by Monet that he sold back with a 25% profit but some other works by that artist, acquired in 1888, remained unsold until his death three years later.
Pissarro's works were worth less than US $ 500 of today. In 1888, Theo bought a superb painting by this artist for a price equivalent to US $ 1,000 and sold it back with a profit of less than US $ 300.
Works by Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Vincent Van Gogh were completely neglected by collectors and Theo met a blunt refusal from the Boussod, Valadon & Co when he wanted to show some of these in their gallery.
People were mostly going for the works of Detaille, Neuville and Gerome, which were selling at incredible prices compared with those by Delacroix, Millet and Corot.
A good work by Delacroix was offered for sale in 1887 at US $ 16,000 of today whereas a painting by Gerome would cost four times more. As Picasso once said only the works which at the start were worth nothing would steal the show on the art market years later.
According to his legend, Vincent van Gogh was a solitary man. In fact, he had an alter ego in the person of his brother Theo, with whom he shared his passion for art and whom he taught the boldest pictorial research.
Had it not been for Vincent, we would have forgotten Theo van Gogh, an art-dealer in Holland and then in Paris, where he directed the local branch of the Goupil establishment. Knowledgeable in the fields of landscape-painting and official painters, he developed a taste for impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, from Degas, Monet, Renoir, to Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent's friend Gauguin, Signac and Seurat. Thus the two brothers gathered a collection.
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