18 Facts About Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was a German-born art collector, and one of the most notable French art dealers of the 20th century.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler became prominent as an art gallery owner in Paris beginning in 1907 and was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and the Cubist movement in art.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's family had previously moved from Rockenhausen, a small village in the Palatinate.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler grew up in Stuttgart and was trained to study finance and philosophy.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's upbringing and education at a German Gymnasium prepared him for his life as an art connoisseur and pragmatic businessman.

Early employment in the family business of stock brokerage in Germany and Paris gave way to an interest in art collecting while Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was still in his twenties.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler opened his first small art gallery in Paris in 1907 at 28 rue Vignon, at age 23.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler is considered to have been one of the greatest supporters of the Cubist art movement through his activities as an art dealer and spokesman for artists.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was among the first people to recognize the importance and beauty of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and immediately wanted to buy it along with all of Picasso's works.

Rather than exhibiting appealing works by established artists from the past and present, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler championed burgeoning artists who had come from all over the globe to live and work in Montparnasse and Montmartre at the time.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler met with them daily to discuss their work, photographed each work they produced, held exhibitions of their work and promoted their work internationally.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler encouraged the practice of publishing Beaux Livres, in which a contemporary artist would illustrate a work of a contemporary writer.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler expanded his presentations by bringing together artists, writers and poets to produce their works as a joint project in more than 40 books.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler spent his time visiting the city's museums and art galleries.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler gave his first interview on Cubism in 1912, and it was actual historical events that led to his career as a historian.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler forbade his 'gallery Cubists' from exhibiting at these major Salons, and by so doing, actually removed them from public view.

Many German nationals living in France had their possessions sequestered by the French state, and as a result, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's collection was confiscated in 1914 and sold by the government in a series of auctions at the Hotel Drouot between 1921 and 1923.

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was very prolific as an author, but never produced a full autobiography.