Compared to Breton, the role of Paul Eluard is harder to characterize. By June 1924, Georges Levy had most probably visited his collection which was available for sale but Eluard had then disappeared. The poet was indeed very active on this secondary art market during the 20s, and actually throughout his entire life, by buying and selling but he participated to the speculation in a less intentional way, buying works by passion when his financial means would allow, then selling them when he was desperate for money. Such dealings allowed him primarily to subsist, he was known for his impulsive nature rather than his pragmatism. Although Eluard accompanied Breton in advising Jacques Doucet, no evidence proves that he had an official role as consultant for the fashion designer. Eluard began his own art collection, buying at the Uhde and Kahnweiler sequestration sales. We can reconstitute his purchases thanks to the sale of his own collection at Hotel Drouot on July 4th 1924. In March 1924, Eluard was experiencing a personal crisis: the ménage à trois he had formed with his wife and Max Ernst two years before was becoming too complicated to manage emotionally. His beloved wife Gala, was turning away from him. He could stand to share her with Max Ernst but couldn’t stand being the third wheel. He published then “Mourir de ne pas mourir” (Dying of not dying) as a oeuvre-testament (will book) and organized a dramatic escape on the other side of the globe, to the Pacific, without telling anyone. His only confidante remained Gala. He authorized her to sell their collection in order to get money [ill. 1ere page PV]. She selected only the most sellable works (sixty-three works). Eluard biographer Jean-Charles Gateau, revealed that their collection, at least of Chirico, was indeed much more important. The annotated copy of the sale catalogue, belonging to the auctioneer Me Bellier, as well as the official records of the sale’s result help to identify cubist works that came most probably from the Uhde and Kahnweiler sequestration auctions. Eluard was known to have acquired very few works but his own sale includes twelve Picassos, two Braques and four Gris. Among them, the lot 51 Picasso, The Glass [IMAGE, 800 frs Eluard/230 frs K.] that was acquired then by the Noailles. This work corresponds exactly to the lot 85 of the 4th Kahnweiler sale for which Eluard former provenance wasn’t known. The sale includes as well one papier collé and one painting by Braque, and four paintings by Gris that were all been identified by Douglas Cooper as coming from the 4th Kahnweiler sale. Paintings by Gris may have sold for lower prices than those by his fellow cubists, but they still doubled in value in the few months between the Kahnweiler and Eluard sales.
Eluard who was absent during the sale of his collection finally came back to Paris at the end of September 1924 after Gala had met him in either Saigon or Singapour. The travel expenses depleted most of their savings and they had lost a large part of their art collection. However, Eluard returned to buying and selling art, as he had done before his dramatic run away. Letters from Simone Breton to Denise Levy reveal that Eluard had still Chirico works for sale in October and that he bought many lots in the sale of the collection of dealer Georges Aubry, held at Hotel Drouot on November 24-25th, 1924- Simone: “Tell Georges that everything sold for a lot at the Aubry sale and that Eluard bought everything that was interesting excepted the Matisses” (Lettres à Denise, 30 November 1924, p. 217). This sale included about one hundred and sixty works by impressionist and modern artists, among which forty-four prints, drawings and one painting by Picasso. Georges Aubry did attend the Kahnweiler sequestration sales and if we cannot identify all works, some definitely come from there. Thanks to the minutes of the Aubry sale, we learn that Eluard bought 10 Picasso drawings and the only painting, lot 158: Ma Jolie [PHOTO Daix 740]. He acquired the Picasso cubist still-life for six thousand and five hundred frs, while Aubry purchased it one thousand seven hundred and twenty frs at the Kahnweiler 4th sale. However this work was known later as part of the collection Jacques Doucet and regarding its high price, Eluard bought it most probably on Doucet’s behalf or sold it to him right after.
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Summary