By Emma Krasov
If we may assume that Picasso saw himself in his Boy Leadinga Horse – a solitary figure with no possessions, moving across an arid planeunder the blind sky, following a road only known to him, ruling a beautifulbeast – it probably won’t be a far stretch to imagine that William S. Paley,who bought the painting on the spot when it was offered to him in a skiinghotel lobby in Switzerland in 1936, also felt a definite affinity toward thesubject matter. In 1905, when the painting was created, Picasso was justentering the Parisian world of modern art, where Henri Matisse’s scandalousfame challenged him, Fernande Olivier’s big heart embraced him, and GertrudeStein’s friendship supported him, helping him realize that his Blue Period wasover, and that the future held plenty of roses for the boy and his art (horse).Paley, a son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, rose to power inAmerica as a broadcasting titan of the 20
th century, the founder ofColumbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and made his name known in the world ofmodern art as a trustee and then chairman of the Board of The Museum of ModernArt, New York.He donated Picasso’s Boy Leading a Horse to the Museum, aswell as many other masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Henri deToulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Andre Derain, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, andothers from his private collection. Paley’s manner of collecting in the 1930s reflected hisindividualist spirit and his appreciation for the new art, mostly characterizedby irreverent bold colors and brushstrokes, bohemian subject matter, and theprevailing mood of pushing the boundaries of public acceptance. Characteristically, the affluent collector limited hisacquisitions in the 1950s, when the market for modernism became safe, inflated,and overcrowded by late-bloomer fans of previously dubious artists. It’s a well –documented fact that Paley was first mostlyimpressed by Cezanne, buying his Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat from the artists’son, and thus starting the private collection geared toward his personal tasteand kept in his primary residence where he could cohabit with the art he loved.
Among the Cezanne paintings from Paley collection, presentedat the current de Young exhibition, there is Milk Can and Apples, a still lifethat reads like a mountainous landscape with descending horizon line, fruitscattered like boulders around the snowy peaks of a crumpled napkin, and wallpaperflowers coming out of their natural environment. It’s paintings like this – intimate in scale, denselysaturated with life (still or otherwise) that made the overall mood of Paleycollection so intriguingly pervasive, reaching out to a contemporary viewerwith the immediacy of here and now. Renoir’s Strawberries, Matisse’s Odalisque with aTambourine, Toulouse-Lautrec’s Mme Lili Grenier, and Manet’s Two Roses on aTablecloth are just a few of the significant modernist artworks
the collector felt so strongly about and keptso close to his heart and sight throughout his life.
Gauguin’s The Seed of the Areoi holds a special place in theexhibition. The painting that has a long and controversial history all its own,reflects the artist’s fascination with the Tahitian landscape that he said“dazzled and blinded” him, as well as with the special beauty of the islanderwomen, the legends of the land and the lifestyle of the tribe the artistbelieved was informed of a higher truth, or the better world. If William Paley’s dream world came true in his collectionof modern art, all the art lovers in the world benefit from it today, and withthe traveling show originated by MOMA, The William S. Paley Collection: A Tastefor Modernism is currently reaching the Western frontier at the de YoungMuseum, San Francisco. The show runs through December 30 at de Young Museum, GoldenGate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, California. Call formore information: 415-750-3600 or visit www.deyoungmuseum.org. Images courtesy FAMSF.
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