The Art of Transforming into a Noble Patron: The Self-(Re)branding Strategies of Art Dealers

📘 In this series, we are multi-dimensionally deciphering the structure of the bourgeois society of the time, using "the relationship between Monet and his second wife Alice, which Goro is so obsessed with" as a clue.

🖼️ This time, as Part 2 of the 4th installment of the "Real Image of Monet's 'Market Value'" series, we will examine how to increase the value of art—that is, how art dealers fashioned themselves into "patrons of new art" and skillfully raised the value of the "commodity" known as art, while creating an atmosphere of nobility.
In this first part, we will focus on the subject itself, the image strategy of the art dealers themselves. Let us look at the process of their transformation—how they draped themselves in the veil of an art patron.

A Stunning Transformation: The Rise in Status of Art Dealers from Junk Dealers to the "Upper Class"

In late 19th-century France, where the main battlefield of beauty shifted from the official Salon to the art market, the social status of the art dealer, who became the protagonist of the market, was also changing dramatically.

The writer and art critic Edmond de Goncourt wrote this in his diary on June 17, 1877.

Some might think that the merchants Goncourt calls "junk dealers" here are just simple antique or ornament dealers. However, in reality, paintings as commodities were also long treated in the market as one of those miscellaneous ornaments.

For example, the famous "Gersaint's Shopsign" painted by the Rococo artist Antoine Watteau in 1720. The shop of the art dealer Edme-François Gersaint, which hung this sign, looks like an elegant gallery in the painting, but in reality, it was a general store on the Pont Notre-Dame that handled everything from paintings to small items and ornaments.

And the representative French art dealers of the late 19th century introduced in Part 1—Goupil, Durand-Ruel, and Georges Petit—also came from families of merchants who dealt in goods other than paintings. Goupil was in print production and sales, Durand-Ruel (the father) in stationery and art supplies, and Petit (the father) in print publishing. They were all emerging businessmen who shifted their business model to become "art dealers".

In other words, as the art market developed and art dealers became more specialized, even these "successful people" who survived the fierce competition and became the protagonists of the art market were, in the eyes of Goncourt, a humble, impoverished aristocrat, nothing more than "originally junk dealers".... But look at them now! They had raised their status so quickly that "the buyer could no longer hold his head up before the seller." The old writer Goncourt could not hide his astonishment and jealousy at this rapid rise.

How to Wear a Noble Veil: What are the "Devices" to Hide the Business Aspect?

So, was this rise in the status of art dealers just a result of the development and expansion of the market? Of course not. Self-styled as "patrons of new art," they were rebranding themselves through clever methods to drape themselves in "noble clothing" as figures worthy of being successors to aristocratic patronage.

Comparing the three art dealers we saw in Part 1 again—Goupil's "Salon-linked type," Durand-Ruel's "visionary type," and Petit's "trend-creating type"—even though their strategies differed, their goals were perfectly aligned. That is, the thorough exclusion of "commercialism" and the creation of "dignity" worthy of the art being sold.

And although it may seem contradictory at first glance, the market value of art actually increases the more one creates an air of "nobility"—that is, rebranding oneself as a noble patron of art was essential for simultaneously increasing social status and profitability.

The "devices" they built for this purpose had many things in common.
First, the creation of exhibition spaces that highlight the artwork.
Next, discursive activities that back up the value.
And, maintaining prices by manipulating scarcity and controlling distribution of the works,
and furthermore, forming networks to expand the market abroad.

These are all methods that lead directly to today's luxury business.

📍From the next chapter, we will delve into each of these "mechanisms" in turn.
Please feel free to start with the themes that interest you most👇

👉 Cultivating a Sense of Superiority: Creating Prestige Spaces Devoid of Commercialism
👉 Enlightenment Mechanisms to Sway Public Opinion: Promotional Strategies via Media
👉 From Work-Centric to Artist-Centric: Career Management through "Exclusive Contracts"
👉 Dealer Networks: Rivals in Public, Win-Win Collaborators in Private

Thank you for reading this far.