Galerie Barbazanges

The Galerie Barbazanges was a modern art gallery in Paris that operated from 1903 to 1928, playing a significant role in the early twentieth-century avant-garde. Founded by Henri Barbazanges, the gallery exhibited contemporary art and became a crucial venue for modernist painting, sculpture, and performance. It is particularly notable for its connection to the fashion designer Paul Poiret, who owned the gallery's most famous premises and utilized the space for his Salon d'Antin exhibitions. The gallery premiered major works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Paul Gauguin, and hosted groundbreaking musical and poetic performances, including the first public presentation of Erik Satie's Musique d'ameublement.

Henri Barbazanges established his first gallery around 1903 at 48 boulevard Haussmann, dedicating the space to modern artists. This initial venture closed in April 1906 following a scandal involving the receipt of forged paintings. In March 1910, Barbazanges reopened at 109 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a property rented from his friend Paul Poiret, with financial backing from the painter Roger Levesque de Blives until Blives's death in 1915, and later from L. C. Hodebert. A condition of the lease allowed Poiret to host two exhibitions annually. Barbazanges retired in early 1924 after purchasing the studio contents of the late Auguste Renoir with Georges Bernheim, transferring the business to Hodebert. The gallery continued as Galerie Barbazanges-Hodebert until the spring of 1928, when it relocated to 174 or 179 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and was renamed Galerie L.C. Hodebert. In late 1929, Hodebert sold the original space and its fund to Georges Bernheim.

The gallery specialized in contemporary and modern art, ranging from Impressionist and Fauvist works to Cubist and avant-garde pieces. Beyond painting and sculpture, the exhibition program encompassed Persian ceramics, drawings, pastels, watercolors, prints, and tapestries. Barbazanges also functioned as an influential art dealer, supplying numerous European museums with major works. He acquired Gustave Courbet's The Artist's Studio from the widow of Victor Antoine Desfosses and sold it to the Louvre, and sold Auguste Renoir's The Sisley Couple to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in 1912. The gallery also brokered works such as Vincent van Gogh's 1887 Self-Portrait. In 1923, Pierre Matisse, son of Henri Matisse, worked at the gallery to gain experience in the art market before departing for New York.

Among the most historically significant presentations at the gallery was the first public showing of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon during the July 1916 Salon d'Antin, organized by Andre Salmon. The 1916 exhibition featured 152 contemporary works, including pieces by Amedeo Modigliani, Moise Kisling, Marie Vassilieff, and Henri Matisse. In 1919, the gallery acquired Paul Gauguin's Self-Portrait with Halo and Snake from Francis Norgelet, who had purchased it from the collection of Marie Henry; the self-portrait was quickly resold to Lord Ivor Charles Spencer Churchill. Other notable exhibitions included the first major solo exhibition of Robert Delaunay in 1912, a 1919 exhibition of unknown Gauguin works, a 1924 Marc Chagall retrospective, and early Maurice Utrillo works from 1910 to 1914 shown in 1924. Conrad Kickert had his first solo exhibition in France there in 1923, where the state purchased his Le Pot chinois for the Musee du Luxembourg.

The gallery's primary and most historically significant location was at 109 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, situated beside Paul Poiret's eighteenth-century mansion at 26 avenue d'Antin. The entrance was located on the avenue d'Antin, earning the space the nickname the Salon d'Antin. The property was formerly part of an extensive factory complex constructed in the late eighteenth century. The gallery leased the ground floor, providing 250 square meters of exhibition space. The layout included a front room leading to several smaller rooms, which opened into a 70 square meter windowless back room illuminated by a glass roof 5.5 meters high. A connecting door was installed between Poiret's mansion and one of the gallery rooms. In 1927, the interior and facade of the building were entirely redesigned by Andre Lurcat. After the gallery vacated, the space housed the Galerie Heim in the 1950s, which specialized in old master paintings.

The original site at 109 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris no longer functions as the Galerie Barbazanges. The gallery's archival records from the period between 1920 and 1930, comprising approximately 800 pages and 1,000 photographs, are preserved at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. The physical space later transitioned to other commercial gallery uses, including the Galerie Heim, reflecting the ongoing evolution of the Parisian art market in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré district.