Louis Carré (1897–1977) Louis Carré (1897–1977)By Marion Bertin As passionate about the creations of his contemporaries as he was about modern French goldsmithing, Louis Carré also made a name for himself in the field of Oceanic art through his work together with Charles Ratton (1895–1986) organizing auctions and appraising collections that have since become legendary. Above and beyond this collaboration, Louis Carré’s career was varied, worldly, international and noteworthy for the care and creativity he displayed in his activities directed at bringing the aesthetic value of Oceanic art to light, and to enhancing the public’s appreciation for it. Louis Carré in 1965. Photo Archives Galerie Louis Carré & Cie. Born into a family of antique dealers in Rennes, Brittany (France), Louis Carré began his career practicing law at the Rennes bar in the 1920s. He then took over his father’s business in the same town. His first specialties were antique jewelry and goldsmithing. In 1928, he wrote a book on the hallmarks used in French goldsmithing from the 14th to the 19th centuries. At the end of the 1920s, Carré opened an antiques shop in Paris, first on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, then on the Rue de Messine, in a district that was the heart of the Paris art market at the time. In the 1930s, he began to focus more specifically on Oceanic art, alongside African art. He was a modern art aficionado as well and was committed to the creators and creations of his time. He collected and exhibited works by many living artists, including Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), of whom he was one of the dealers in the 1940s, as well as Paul Klee (1879–1940) and Marc Chagall (1887–1985). In the fields of Oceanic and African art, the history of the art market particularly retains Louis Carré’s association with Charles Ratton, a key figure in the development of the market for so-called “primitive” art between the wars. The two men bought objects together, as is well-documented in Carré’s inventory book. These collective purchases took place not only in France, but also throughout Europe, especially in London, where the two dealers regularly traveled to acquire objects that were being offered for sale at public auctions by Sotheby’s, Foster or Burney. On the London art market, Ratton and Carré acquired numerous bronze objects from the Kingdom of Benin (now Nigeria) that had been looted by the British army during the punitive expedition and the sacking of the royal palace in Benin City in 1897. Together, Carré and Ratton participated in the presentation of several exhibitions devoted to these objects, both as curators and/or lenders. These included the Bronzes et ivoires du Bénin exhibition, held at the Musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro in June–July 1932 and curated by Charles Ratton and colonial administrator Henri Labouret (1878–1959), and the Bronzes and Ivories from the Old Kingdom of Benin exhibition, held at the galleries of M. Knoedler and Company in November–December 1935. These two exhibitions promoted a view of the history of African art as one rooted in long traditions. This vision moreover emphasized that the corpus of African art involved the use of a variety of materials and was not just made up of wooden objects as the Western aesthetic canons of the period generally suggested. On the Paris market, Louis Carré and Charles Ratton also acted as experts for public sales that were held by the Bellier auction house at the Hôtel Drouot. Bellier was one of the first to organize sales devoted specifically to the arts of Oceania and Africa. Some of these were among the most important auctions in the history of the Oceanic art market. The Sculptures d'Afrique, d'Amérique, d'Océanie. Collections de Paul Eluard et d'André Breton sale of July 2 and 3, 1931, was certainly one of them. The sale was widely advertised and promoted with a lavishly produced catalog that featured numerous illustrations and plates featuring the objects being offered. One of these plates was devoted to a set of malanggan masks from New Ireland, and another showed carved wooden moai figures from Easter Island. Cover of the Sculptures d'Afrique, d'Amérique, d'Océanie. Collections de Paul Eluard et d'André Breton auction catalog, July 2–3, 1931. A Solomon Islands kap-kap ornament is shown. Plate IV from the Sculptures d'Afrique, d'Amérique, d'Océanie catalog (1931), showing malanggan masks from New Ireland and carved moai figures from Easter Island. Carré and Ratton were also the two experts hired to handle the sale of the Georges de Miré (1890–1965) collection, which was sold anonymously by the Bellier auction house at Hôtel Drouot in May 1931, and then again using the collector’s name in December of the same year. The dispersal of this collection is recognized as being among the most important events of the period in the field of Oceanic and African art for the quality of the objects it included, even though both sales resulted in financial losses, as is documented by the Louis Carré archives now in the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Georges de Miré, who was a cousin of the painter Roger de la Fresnaye (1885–1925), remains a rather mysterious figure in the history of the art market. Very little is known about the genesis of his interest in the arts of Oceania and Africa, and the channels through which he acquired his objects. His collection did however include a set of Fang culture (present-day Gabon) reliquary figures that he had acquired from French dealer Paul Guillaume (1891–1934). For Oceania, it included objects from New Guinea, including a Sepik mask that was purchased by Tristan Tzara (lot 119, sale May 7, 1931) and an anthropomorphic figure from the Lower Sepik River. Left unsold in 1931, this figure remained in Louis Carré’s stock until it was acquired by Pablo Picasso in 1941. In the 1940s, Louis Carré was not only a dealer in Picasso’s works, but also an intermediary through whom Picasso acquired objects from Oceania and Africa for his personal collection, sometimes in exchange for his own paintings. Shortly before the de Miré collection sale, Charles Ratton and Louis Carré launched a major campaign to validate and promote the aesthetic value of the objects being offered, particularly of the Melanesian ones, which were still widely under-appreciated on the French art market. For example, the two experts invested in having proper stands made for pieces prior to the auction, and commissioned bases for some lots from sculptor Kichizo Inagaki (1876–1951). The Lower Sepik River figure from the Picasso collection, now in the Musée National Picasso–Paris, was among these. Anthropomorphic figure, Lower Sepik River (Papua New Guinea), c. 19th century, wood with pigments, 45.5 x 20 x 17.5 cm. Formerly in the collections of Georges de Miré, Louis Carré, and Pablo Picasso. Now held at Musée National Picasso–Paris (Inv. MP3638). Prior to its being sold to Picasso, this figure remained in the hands of Louis Carré for several years and was exhibited regularly in the 1930s. Indeed, the organization of exhibitions and the loan of objects for display were two notable aspects of Louis Carré’s activities as a dealer. These exhibitions helped to promote the aesthetic qualities of New Guinea objects, which he presented individually on bases and pedestals. Carré moreover distinguished himself through his active social life and the organization of numerous exhibitions and cocktail parties at his home. An example was the July 1933 Sculptures et objets, Afrique noire et Amérique ancienne, Polynésie et Mélanésie exhibition, that he organized at the Villa Guibert in the Passy district of Paris. In the late 1950s, Carré commissioned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) to build a villa in Bazoche-en-Yvette, near Paris. A veritable “picture rail house”, in the words of Asdís Olafsdóttir, this villa integrated the arts into the heart of its architectural features: the wide white walls could easily be transformed with picture rails thanks to hanging systems, and the lighting was custom-made to optimize displays. Finally, Louis Carré was one of the Parisian dealers in African and Oceanic art who pioneered transnational and, perhaps even more importantly, transatlantic networks, for example through the contacts he established with the Knoedler Galleries in New York for the Bronzes and Ivories from the Old Kingdom of Benin exhibition. In 1935, Carré was a major lender to the historic African Negro Sculpture exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also participated in the production of the Comparative Primitive Sculpture exhibition held at the Valentine Gallery in April of the same year. During the Second World War, Louis Carré went on with his usual activities. He was subsequently among the dealers who were fined after the Liberation as a result of the purges mandated by the Comité National Interprofessionnel d'Épuration. After the war, he attempted to establish a more durable presence in the United States, and opened a New York branch bearing his name, the Louis Carré Gallery Inc., in 1948. It closed in 1952 having enjoyed only limited success. A new American attempt was launched in the 1960s, with a Paris office as its center of operations. This venture focused exclusively on living artists. Indeed, after the war, Louis Carré abandoned his specialty in the arts of Oceania and Africa and sold the last objects in his stock to Jean Roudillon and Olivier Lecorneur, much younger dealers at the time, thus bringing about a transition to a new generation of the art market. Carré did hold on to a few tribal art objects, as well as to a comprehensive library of works on Oceanic and African art. These were dispersed by the Loudmer auction house at the Arts primitifs: collection et bibliothèque Louis Carré sale of June 27, 1985. The cover of the catalog is a replica of the one for the July 1931 sale of the Breton and Eluard collections, in tribute to Louis Carré’s work and his contributions to the field of Oceanic art. Cover of the Arts primitifs: collection et bibliothèque Louis Carré catalog, Loudmer Auctioneers, Paris, June 27, 1985. Styled as a tribute to the landmark 1931 sale of the Breton and Eluard collections.
