Léonce Rosenberg, Disgraced Avant-Garde Gallerist

Both Paul and Léonce Rosenberg were art dealers, but only Paul was financially successful. He is also the more famous brother thanks to his granddaughter Anne Sinclair, a prominent television journalist. Now, a young Italian art historian, Giovanni Casini, has published a PhD thesis that restores Léonce’s tarnished reputation and demonstrates his key role in promoting Cubism . He also provides details of the private life of this little-known figure, about whom no biography has been written. Born in 1879, Léonce trained as an international broker at the Paris Stock Exchange, first with the imposing importer Louis-Dreyfus, then in London and Antwerp. Back in France, he joined his father Alexandre Rosenberg, whose gallery at 38 avenue de l’Opéra in Paris featured the Impressionists . When Alexandre retired, he passed the baton to Léonce and Paul. Yet the partnership was short-lived. In 1910, Léonce left to open an antiques shop at 19 rue de La Baume called “Haute époque”, offering an eclectic mix of objects from Persian miniatures to Chinese porcelain , Limousine enamels and early Renaissance  paintings.   Francis Picabia (1879-1953), Pavonia , 1929, oil on canvas, 149.7 x 170.8 cm/58.93 x 67.24 in (detail). A “Mad Crush”…