Roger Adolphe Dutilleul

Roger Dutilleul was a French industrialist who became one of the top art collectors in France during the first half of the twentieth century. An attentive, elegant man, he was known for purchasing works of art directly from exhibitions—including the seminal 1908 show of Georges Braque’s work at Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s gallery—and he provided vital support for young artists whose work was still widely rejected by the public and the art establishment. An enthusiast for modern art, he invested most of his income in building his collection, the core of which was assembled from 1907 to the 1920s.

Dutilleul particularly appreciated the work of Paul Cézanne, but when modest means prohibited the purchase of post-Impressionist paintings, including those by Cézanne, he began collecting art that most closely resembled that modern master’s work. Thus, by default, he turned his attention toward the most advanced art of the period. One of the guiding principles behind Dutilleul’s acquisitions was painting format; he preferred moderately sized canvases. Acting on instinct and with a sharp eye, Dutilleul had a penchant for portraits and human figures. His first purchase—a Fauvist painting by Braque—was acquired from the Parisian dealer Berthe Weill, whom he held in great esteem.

Dutilleul began building his collection just as Kahnweiler was opening his gallery in Paris. Interested in Fauvist and Cubist painting, he became one of Kahnweiler’s most faithful clients, and he was probably the first French collector to pursue Cubist works. In truth, Dutilleul became the dealer’s student. For some time, Dutilleul’s collection closely mirrored that of his mentor, and it was Kahnweiler who pushed the young collector to consider the art of Juan Gris, Louis Marcoussis, and Pablo Picasso. Dutilleul purchased his first Cubist paintings, by André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, from Kahnweiler. By the time World War I broke out, Dutilleul had amassed more than fifty Cubist works by Picasso and Braque. The collector, who remained committed to Kahnweiler and the group of artists affiliated with the gallery after the war, eventually owned more than one hundred works by Braque, Fernand Léger, and Picasso.

Dutilleul objected to the Galerie Kahnweiler sequestration sales held at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris between June 1921 and May 1923. Specifically, he rejected the wholesale offering of the German dealer’s confiscated stock and property, which flooded the market with Cubist artworks at exceptionally low prices. Nonetheless, Dutilleul added to his existing collection by buying several paintings including three prewar Contrast of Forms pictures by Léger as well as the gallery’s archival documents during the fourth sale on May 7–8, 1923. In an act of kindness, Dutilleul returned the latter to Kahnweiler after the sale. Among the paintings Dutilleul acquired was Léger’s 1913 Femme couchée (Sleeping Woman) (Lille Métropole Musée d’art modern, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, or LaM).

In early 1918, Dutilleul became infatuated with the work of Amedeo Modigliani with whom he formed a close relationship, a fact demonstrated by the artist’s 1919 portrait of the collector (Parisot 1991, no. 43). By 1925 Dutilleul had acquired thirty-four paintings and twenty-one drawings by the Italian artist, most of which were procured from the Polish-born poet and art dealer Léopold Zborowski. In addition to Modigliani, Dutilleul also cultivated an eclectic taste for the work of Paul Klee, Joan Míro, Vassily Kandinsky, Chaïm Soutine, and Joaquín Torres-García. Installation photographs of his small apartment at 48, rue de Monceau, show the remarkable size of Dutilleul’s collection. Some of the paintings he owned were hung in the bathroom—presumably because of lack of space—including Léger’s Sketch for "The Acrobats in the Circus" (1918; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection), which he had purchased from Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie L’Effort Moderne in October 1918.

Upon his death in 1956, Dutilleul left his remarkable collection to his nephew, Jean Masurel, who independently and together with his wife, Geneviève Masurel (née de la Rigodière), had assembled an impressive collection. In addition to acquiring early twentieth-century art and African sculpture, the couple supported among others such local contemporary artists as Eugène Dodeigne, Eugène Leroy, Jean Roulland, and Arthur Van Hecke. In 1979 Geneviève and Jean donated much of their art holdings to the city of Lille. Their donation provided a path toward establishing a museum for modern art in the north of France. The new museum opened in 1983 as the Villeneuve-d’Ascq Musée d’art moderne (present-day Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut ([LaM]).