Picasso

Kahnweiler visited Picasso almost daily, bringing him updates on sales, newspaper articles, and requests from collectors. Although this collaboration only lasted up until Kahnweiler's forced exile in 1914, it spanned a "historic" period in the output of the painter and his friends. The German gallerist had to leave France during the First World War. "Fighting for Germany was absolutely unthinkable for me. I considered the possibility of coming to France as a volunteer, but ended up dismissing that idea as well," he explained in a radio interview in 1960.[1]

During the First World War, having taken refuge in Switzerland, Kahnweiler was able to give free rein to his analyses and his penchant for writing. With the perspective and the time he had lacked while running the gallery, he was able to theorize about his choices and his intuitions. Earlier on, in Paris, he had often met with two privileged interlocutors, his compatriots Wilhelm Uhde and Carl Einstein; their conversations led him to develop the philosophical underpinnings for some of his innovative and unique views on modern art.

Having refused to take sides in the war between the Germans and the French, Kahnweiler was considered an enemy of France; as a result, the holdings from his gallery were impounded in late 1914. The decree of September 27, 1914 made it possible to seize property belonging to German and Austro-Hungarian subjects present on French territory. As no ruling was issued to lift these war seizures, they ultimately led to dispossessions. After the armistice, Kahnweiler tried in vain to recover his collection.

The holdings were auctioned off and the proceeds from the sales went to the French government. In the process, close to 800 Cubist works were sold at ludicrous prices during the four "Kahnweiler sales," held between June 1921 and May 1923.[2] France, which was seeking compensation for war damages, only managed to impoverish itself as many extraordinary works of art crossed the border, never to return.[3] The sales caused quite a stir in the art world and among dealers. "The crowd at the Hôtel Drouot included all the international art dealers, such as Alfred Flechtheim, the Brummer brothers, Bernheim-Jeune, and Paul Guillaume, as well as the major collectors Alphonse Kann, Baroness Gougaud, André Level, and Alfred Richet; also present were the art critics Maurice Raynal and Adolphe Basler, along with all the young artists from that period: sculptors Jacques Lipchitz and his colleague Oscar Mietschaninoff, and the Dadaists André Breton, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos, and Tristan Tzara. Amedée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier, the founders of Purism, bought as consultants for the collector Raoul La Roche."[4]