“En principe, il l‘a déjà acheté!” The Business Activities of Václav Nebeský in Paris in Relation to the Czech and International Context between 1923 and 1936
| Title in English | “En principe, il l‘a déja acheté!” The Business Activities of Václav Nebeský in Paris in Relation to the Czech and International Context between 1923 and 1936 |
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
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| Description | The active role of the art historian, critic and theoretician Václav Nebeský (1889–1949) in the negotiation and implementation of the state purchase of French art in 1923 is a more or less known fact, even if question marks still hang over a number of aspects of this important political-legitimization operation in connection with his person . Nebeský, the author of the first study on Czech modern art, published on the occasion of the international exhibition in Paris in 1937, undoubtedly made a significant contribution to the contacts between the Czech and French art and cultural scenes in the interwar period. As the only Czech art historian, gifted man of letters and businessman, he spent a significant part of his professional career on French soil during this period, and also established himself as an expert on French modern art. He thus - from the point of view of the Czech environment in an exceptional way - devoted himself to the issue in terms of collecting, business as well as theoretically and publishing. So far, professional attention has been mainly devoted to his position as an art critic in the Czech environment. So far, only a minimum is known about Nebesky's international business activities, which he conducted during his stay on rue Delambre in the very center of artistic Paris on Montparnasse between 1923 and 1936, culminating in an attempt to mediate the sale of Manet's late chef d'oeuvre Bar at the Folies- Bergere (1925–26). Placing Nebeský's activities not only in the deeper context of the domestic mobility of artistic artifacts, but above all in the network of contemporary international cultural and commercial contacts is thus a logical next step pointing to the surprisingly ambitious and international nature of the actions of this professionally neglected personality. |
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