Joseph Duveen

Joseph Duveen was one of the most influential British art dealers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His father, Joseph Joel Duveen (1843-1908), was a Dutch-Jewish art dealer who founded Duveen Brothers in Hull in 1877 with his brother Henry J. Duveen (1854-1919). Duveen Brothers initially earned a reputation for trading in high-end antiques.   Joseph Duveen was born in Hull. He helped his father at the antique shop there and later in London and at the other branches in Paris and New York. Joseph married Elsie Salomon in 1899. They had one daughter.   Joseph took over the business after his father’s death in 1908, working alongside his uncle, Henry J. Duveen. Under Joseph’s stewardship, Duveen Brothers specialized in Old Master paintings. Joseph saw great potential in attracting wealthy American clients – J.P. Morgan, Henry Clay Frick and Samuel H. Kress come to mind – who were eager to buy Old Masters in Europe. Joseph Duveen took advantage of the impoverishment of European nobility – owing to the collapse of their agrarian income – who were forced to raise cash by selling their art collections. Furthermore, Joseph’s timing was acute as he developed the instincts and had the resources to seize opportunities. When Rodolphe Kann’s famous art collection came on the market after his death in 1905, Duveen was keen on buying it all. To do so, he teamed up with Paris-based art dealer Nathan Wildenstein, patriarch of the Galerie Wildenstein. They purchased jointly the Rodolphe Kann collection in 1907 for 21 million francs.   One of the art objects in that sale was a marble fountain adorned with cupids, which Adolphe Schloss later acquired in 1910 from Franz Kleinberger.

Literature: Secrest, Meryle. Duveen. Amsterdam University Press, 2005. Simpson, Colin. The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. 1st ed. Bodley Heud, 1987.