Ebook: Rogues' gallery: the rise (and occasional fall) of art dealers, the hidden players in the history of art

Part I: Renaissance and Enlightenment. Agents and merchants : dealing before 1700 ; Crooks and connoisseurs : the eighteenth century -- Part II: The nineteenth century. The art of speculation : William Buchanan ; Ernest Gambart and the Victorian art boom -- Part III: Modern times. Joseph Duveen : the salesman as artist ; The Wildenstein dynasty ; Selling the new : Paul Durand-Ruel ; The enrichment of Ambroise Vollard ; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler : dealer as purist ; The fox and the shrimp : the Rosenberg brothers ; Terrorists and tastemakers : more French dealers ; From Cassirer to Berggruen : the Germans ; Gentlemen and players : the British -- Part IV: Into the contemporary world. Peter Wilson and the invention of the modern art market ; The art of shopping : dealing in the USA ; Leo Castelli and the American dream ; The cutting edge.;"Here for the first time is the history of art dealers, those extraordinary men and woman who, over centuries (and almost entirely out of the public eye), built their profession on a singular skill: identifying the intangible but infinitely desirable qualities that characterize the greatest works of art--and finding clients for whom those qualities are irresistible. Philip Hook's riveting narrative takes us from the early days of art dealing in Antwerp, where paintings were sold by weight, to the unassailable hauteur of contemporary galleries in New York, London, Paris, and beyond. Along the way, we meet a surprisingly wide-ranging cast of characters--from tailors, spies, and the occasional anarchist to scholars, aristocrats, and connoisseurs, some compelled by greed, some by their own vision of art--and some by the art of the deal. Among them are Joseph Duveen, who almost single-handedly brought the Old Masters to America; Paul Durand-Ruel, the Impressionists' champion; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, high priest of Cubism; Leo Castelli, dealer-midwife to Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art; and Peter Wilson, the charismatic Sotheby's chairman who made a theater of the auction room. Rogues' Gallery bursts with unforgettable anecdotes and astute judgments about art and artists, honed by Hook's more than forty years in the art market--making it essential reading for anyone interested in the hidden history of art."--Jacket.