This is the first thorough investigation of the Brummer brothersâ remarkable career as dealers in antiques, curiosities and modernism in Paris and New York over six decades (1906-1964). A dozen specialists aggregate their expertise to explore extant dealer records and museum archives, parse the wide-ranging Brummer stock, and assess how objects were sourced, marketed, labelled, restored, and displayed. The research provides insights into emerging collecting fields as they crystallised, at the crossroads between market and museum. It questions the trope of the tastemaker; the translocation of material culture, and the dealersâ prolific relationships with illustrious collectors, curators, scholars, artists, and fellow dealers.
Christine E. Brennan, PhD (2019), is Senior Researcher and Collections Manager, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Met (1992-present). Her recent publications include âPrince Pierre Soltykoffâs Famed Collection of Medieval Artâ in Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2019) and âFragmented Historiesâ in Making The Met, 1870-2020 (2020).
Christel H. Force, PhD (2001), independent scholar, formerly held curatorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005-2018) and the Museum of Modern Art (1990-2005), New York. She edited Pioneers of the Global Art Market: Paris-Based Dealers Networks, 1850-1950 (2020); and her recent publications include "Otto Feldmann, promoteur de Picasso en Allemagne avant 1914â in Les artistes et leurs galeries: Paris-Berlin (2020), and "The Elliptical and Anonymous Format of Provenance Revisitedâ in Collecting and Provenance (2021).'
List of Figures and Tables Contributors
Introduction
âChristel H. Force, Yaëlle Biro and Christine E. Brennan
1 The Brummer Galleries: A Chronology
âChristel H. Force
Part 1: A Family AffairâThe Brummers and Art Dealing in Paris, 1906â1914
2 Innate Taste or Construction of the Gaze: Joseph Brummer and the Promotion of the African Object as Art
âYaëlle Biro
Museum libraries; specific curatorial departments within encyclopaedic museums; university libraries (in the US, France, Hungary, and Germany especially); research institutes; museum professionals such as curators, archivists and conservators; academics (art history, art market studies, history of collecting, Jewish studies, immigrations studies); students (undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate); archaeologists; provenance experts; art dealers, auction house specialists and other art market professionals; art collectors; amateurs of antiques and curiosities; sociologists; historians; economists (art and antiques market); and a general audience of art lovers.