Collection in focus

Novo Pilota, Amedeo Modigliani and his dealer Paul Guillaume

From March 05th to September 05th, 2022 -

Musée de l'Orangerie

It was through the poet Max Jacob that the gallery owner and collector Paul Guillaume (1891-1934) discovered Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) in 1914. He probably became his dealer the following year and was one of the artist’s first supporters.

In addition to the five Modigliani paintings now in the Orangerie collection, about a hundred paintings as well as about fifty drawings would have passed through the hands of Paul Guillaume. This number indicates both the dealer's involvement in promoting the artist and his personal taste for his works.

The most emblematic painting from the early days of this relationship, Novo Pilota, belongs to a series of portraits of the gallery owner made by Modigliani. It is presented in this exhibition alongside numerous graphic, photographic and documentary elements restoring the links that existed between the ingenious painter, who died at an early age in 1920, and his gallery owner.