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Duveen Brothers stock documentation from the dealer's
library
2007.D.1
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Title: Duveen Brothers stock documentation from the dealer's library
Date (inclusive): 1829-1965
Number: 2007.D.1
Creator/Collector:
Duveen
Brothers
Physical Description:
755 Linear Feet
Physical Description: (740 boxes, 10 flatfiles, 2
rolls)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: These records from the firm of art
dealers, Duveen Brothers, formed part of the firm's library that was purchased in 1965 by
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. They document
the Duveen Brothers' cataloging, research, exhibition work, and publication of works of art
and collections. They consist of brochures, photographs, collectors' files, scrapbooks,
correspondence, and authentication records from art experts, notably Bernard Berenson.
Included in these records are also the papers of Italian Renaissance art historian R.
(Robert) Langton Douglas.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
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collection. Click here for the
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Language: Collection material is in English
The Duveen Brothers was a firm of influential art dealers active from the late nineteenth
to the mid-twentieth centuries with offices in London, Paris, and New York. Under the
guidance of Joseph Duveen (1869-1939), and assisted by art experts, most notably Bernard
Berenson (1865-1959), Duveen Brothers played a prominent role in the transfer of works of
art from Europe to the United States. The firm helped form important private collections
that later became the nuclei of museums such as the National Gallery of Art, the Huntington
Art Collections, and the Frick Collection.
Joel Joseph (1843-1908) and Henry Duveen (1854-1919), the founders of Duveen Brothers were
originally from Meppel, Holland. In 1866, Joel Joseph moved to England, first to the city of
Hull and then to London, where he began importing delftware, porcelain and other objets
d'art from Holland. In 1877, Henry moved to Boston and then New York, where he would become
associated with the affluent American collectors J. P. Morgan, Benjamin Altman, Collis P.
Huntington, P. A. B. Widener and George J. Gould. Joseph Duveen, the eldest son of Joseph
Joel and the principal personage behind the firm's peak from 1907 to 1939 joined the
business under his father's mentorship in the London branch in 1887. In 1905-1908, Sir
(later Lord) Joseph Duveen made the decisive purchases in Paris of the Rodolfe Kann and
Maurice Kann collections and in Berlin of the Hainauer collection.
The firm's operation involved a network of runners, scholars, librarians, writers, and
photographers. Its access to the vast financial resources of its clientele of international
bankers provided it with the capital necessary to make major purchases. The firm achieved
major sales to collectors, such as Samuel Kress, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Joseph E.
Widener, Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Huntington and Philip Lehman.
In 1939, after Lord Duveen's death, his nephew, Armand Lowengard and Edward Fowles assumed
leadership of the firms in Paris, New York and London. When Lowengard passed away in 1943,
Fowles took over the presidency of Duveen Brothers until 1964, when he sold the firm to
Norton Simon with most of its remaining stock.
Open for use by qualified researchers, except for Series III. Scrapbooks. Contact the
repository for information regarding access of Series III.
Contact
Library Reproductions and
Permissions
.
Duveen Brothers stock documentation from the dealer's library, 1829-1965, The Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2007.D.1. Gift of Sterling and Francine Clark
Art Institute.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2007d1
On deposit at the Getty Research Institute from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute, 2006-2016. In 2019, the archive was donated by the Clark Art Institute.
Gift of Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
Clare Denk registered the archive. Under the supervision of Jocelyn Gibbs and then Andra
Darlington, Arsineh Zargarian unpacked and rehoused the bulk of the archive from 2007 to
2009. Teresa Morales completed the processing of Series VII and its container list in 2009
and 2010. Under the supervision of Karen Meyer-Roux, intern Sarah Mooney processed series
VI, Jan Bender assisted with the processing of Series VII, and Emmabeth Nanol completed the
processing of the archive and prepared the archive for digitization.
The collection was digitized between 2011-2014 under the auspices of the Kress Foundation:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2007d1
Duveen Brothers Records, 1876-1981 (Accession no. 960015). Connect to finding aid:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa960015
Scope and Content of Collection
The stock documentation formed part of the library of the Duveen Brothers that was
purchased in 1965 by The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown,
Massachusetts. It was not included in the business records that were deeded in 1968 by
Edward Fowles to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in turn donated to the Getty Research
Institute in 1996 (Accession No. 960015). After the Clark Institute integrated the published
books, sales catalogs, and periodicals from the Duveen Brothers' library into the
institute's general collections, there remained a significant archive, comprised of
photograph albums, drafts and published catalogs, brochures, clippings arranged in
scrapbooks, photographs of the firm's stock, architectural plans, and art expertise
documentation. This portion of the art dealers's records documents the firm's exhibition
work, cataloging, research, and publication of works of art and collections. It includes
collectors' files and authentication records from art experts, notably Bernard Berenson. The
archive was placed on deposit in 2006 at the Getty Research Institute for processing,
cataloging, conservation, and microfilming.
The archive is primarily visual in nature, as its largest series consists of the
photographic reference files maintained by Duveen Brothers personnel. Included are also
albums of photographs that record the most important works of art in the firm's stock as
well as albums of photographs that illustrate collections of the firm's clients, including
Jules Bache, Anna Dodge Dillman, Andrew Mellon, and Samuel Kress.
Although the bulk of the firm's correspondence forms part of the related archive at the
Getty Research Institute, the Duveen Brothers records (Accession No. 960015), the archive
comprises correspondence with Bernard Berenson, R. (Robert) Langton Douglas, Georg
Swarzenski, Wilhelm von Bode, Wilhelm Rheinhold Otto Valentiner, and Max Friedländer. Art
expertise includes Bernard Berenson's X books and certificates of authenticity in the form
of typed statements and signed photographs. Clippings and scrapbooks document advertising
campaigns orchestrated by the firm and court trials occasioned by attribution disputes and
claims of tax frauds.
Personal aspects of Lord Joseph Duveen's career and benefactions are documented in
scrapbooks, drawings, and photographs. The daily activities of the firm appear in callers'
books that consist of notes on customers' visits and on works seen. Plans, drawings, and
fabric swatches document the firm's role as decorator for its clients's estates.
Included are also the papers of Italian Renaissance art historian R. (Robert) Langton
Douglas (8.0 linear feet (9 boxes)), whose widow later married the firm's last president,
Edward Fowles.
Arranged in fourteen series: Series I. Albums of photographs, 1871-1956; Series II.
Exhibition catalogs, pamphlets and posters, 1907-1964; Series III. Scrapbooks, 1869-1962;
Series IV. Brochures, 1910-1962; Series V. Collectors' files, 1877-1956; Series VI.
Articles, 1829-1963; Series VII. Photographs, 1898-circa 1960; Series VIII. Business
records, 1910-circa 1960; Series IX. Robert Langton Douglas papers, 1916-1951; Series X.
Lord Joseph Duveen, 1919-1933; Series XI. Photographs and inventories related to the Duveen
Brothers' showrooms, 1920s; Series XII. Designs and architectural plans, undated; Series
XIII. Library index cards, bibliographies and reference lists, undated.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont),
1867-1943
Ringling, John,
1866-1936
Kress, Samuel H. (Samuel
Henry), 1863-1955
Mellon, Andrew W. (Andrew
William), 1855-1937
Benson, Robert,
1850-1929
Bache, Jules S. (Jules
Semon), 1861-1944
Duveen, Joseph Duveen, Baron,
1869-1939
Huntington, Henry Edwards,
1850-1927
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul),
1892-1976
Art -- Provenance
Art -- Private collections
Decorative arts -- Collectors and collecting
Collectors and collecting
Art dealers -- Great Britain
Art dealers -- France
Art -- Expertising
Art dealers -- United States
Painting, European -- Collectors and collecting
Duveen
Brothers