Level was still present in the delicate business after the war as Picasso struggled with his dealer Kahnweiler to recover his works. In August 1914, the content of the Kahnweiler gallery was seized by the French state as a German asset and was submitted to a war sequestration. Picasso then accused his former dealer to owe him the sum of 20 000 francs for the last works entrusted to the gallery and which had not been paid yet by the gallery owner. While the artists supported Kahnweiler and tried to fight the sequestration, Picasso maintained an ambiguous position, wishing above all to recover the confiscated works. Level then intervened several times to clear up the misunderstanding and to do something about the sequestration. Thus, in letters dated January, February and November 1915, he explained the visits he made to the different administrations to meet the receiver, Me Nicolle and make the apology of modern art. On November 4, he wrote: “I visited the receiver at home. Me Nicolle is never there or does not receive visitors there. I was sent to the Administration de l’Enregistrement, rue de la Banque. He only comes irregularly, making controls outside. I left my card asking for an appointment. No reply. But his morning, in front of the enregistrement, rue de la Banque, I went up to see if I could meet him by chance. He was not there. But I spoke with one of his colleagues, and one thing leading to another, I was led to make a conference about Cubism and art in general. No less. He said he was going to see our exhibition and I can rely on him to obtain a meeting with the elusive Me Nico[l]le. And now we have a friend in the Administration!”[i]. In parallel, he introduced Picasso to Me Danet, a lawyer who tried to clarify the situation, asking an inventory of the stock of the gallery Kahnweiler as well as a recapitulation of the amounts due to the merchant by his former clients. All these steps had no result and the works were eventually dispersed in four auctions between 1921 and 1923. Level had done everything he could to defend Picasso.
The help was reciprocal. In 1922 André Level, recently retired from business, opened the gallery Percier at the corner of the avenue of the same name and of the rue La Boëtie, in partnership with André Lefèvre, a financier close to the banking circles and a great collector, and Alfred Richet, the secretary of an important company importing coal. The gallery was close to the spirit of La Peau de l’Ours. It was a non profit-making organization, aiming above all to promote young artists. For the opening of his gallery, Picasso assigned him works, and then illustrated the frontispiece of the biography which Level dedicated to him, the third about Picasso, after that of Maurice Raynal in 1921 and that of Waldemar Georges in 1924. He then made an original lithograph, an anonymous face which was the portrait of his partner Marie-Thérèse. The affair was being kept secret at the time and this intimate portrait was the first public representation of the young woman. André Level held a very peculiar place in Picasso’s life. Much more than a simple collector, he became a discreet and precious friend for the artist. While Level’s name is famous today as the founder of La Peau de l’Ours, he continued to defend modern art but also African art well beyond the end of the famous association. Between 1900 and 1927 he gathered a personal collection of works by young painters among which works by Picasso. We are now going to try and delineate its content.
[i] André Level’s letter to Pablo Picasso, November 4, 1919, Picasso Archives, Picasso Museum, Paris.
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Summary