Tale of an encounter … on Rue de Crussol

A witness to two of the most important encounters over the course of my life as an art collects or, and later on, as a gallery owner, the pastel Atelier de la Rue Crussol is very dear to me.

For many years, I was close enough to Sam Szafran to be granted the rare privilege of regularly entering his studio on Malakoff. I also had the honor of assisting on occasion to the creation of pastel and charcoal drawings as well as watercolor paintings in this place, seemingly unaffected by t.mes . However, it was thanks to my first acquisition as a collects or, a lithograph of the Atelier de la rue Crussol, in 1973, that we met.

When William (Louis-Dreyfus) acquired the pastel of the Atelier de la Rue Crussol in November 1996, we had already developed a friendly relationship. A few years prior, the quest to find works by Szafran had brought him to my gallery at 1 rue d’Alger, in the first arrondissement. He had left with the five artworks I had shown him, visibly ecstatic. Ever since then, we often discussed artists we were passionate about. In first place was Sam Szafran, but there were also Raymon Mason, the sculptor, and Jean-Baptiste Sécheret, a closer acquaintance. These three artists are very well represented in his collects ion and will all be showcased in Paris in various prestigious institutions in 2022 (in the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Paris Museum of Modern Art and at the Custodia Foundation, respectively).

William, who passed away in 2016, would have been very proud and very happy to see the artists he championed and had become passionate about be celebrated in such a way by the public and art critics.

冥冥中自有緣：《克魯索爾街》的故事

《克魯索爾街的工作室》粉彩畫見證著我生命中兩場重要的邂逅。第一段關乎我的收藏經歷，另一段則是我後來擔任畫廊主理人時的遭遇。它對我而言無比珍重，意義非同一般。

薩姆・沙弗蘭是我的多年知交，我有幸能定期造訪他的馬拉科夫工作室，更在該地見證幾幅粉彩畫、炭筆畫及水彩畫的誕生。在那裡，時間彷彿靜止流動，創意之泉川流不息。1973年，我購入人生第一幅藝術作品——《克魯索爾街的工作室》平面版畫，從此開展了我的收藏生涯，並為我和威廉的首次相遇埋下伏筆。

威廉（路易斯・德雷福斯）在1996年11月購入《克魯索爾街的工作室》粉彩畫，當時，我們已是知交甚篤的好友。事緣數年前，威廉為覓得沙弗蘭的作品而四處尋訪，命運之手將他帶領到我在巴黎第一區阿爾及爾街1號開設的畫廊。當時，他一次過買下我向他展示的五幅畫作，喜悅之情溢於言表。從此，我們往來甚繁，常常就彼此心儀的藝術家互相交流，當中以薩姆・沙弗蘭為首，另有雕塑家雷蒙・梅森及與我們往來較密切的讓・巴蒂斯特・塞切雷特。他們的手筆在威廉的收藏中比比皆是，2022年，數間巴黎知名博物館更會為三位藝術家舉辦展覽（分別為橘園美術館、巴黎市現代藝術博物館及庫斯托迪亞基金會）。

威廉在2016年與世長辭。如今，威廉熱愛有加、一直傾力支持的藝術家廣受藝評家及大眾稱道，若他泉下有知，定會不勝感幸。

雅克・埃爾巴茲（Jacques Elbaz）

Histoire d’une rencontre… rue de Crussol

Témoin de deux rencontres capitales dans ma vie de collects ionneur et, plus tard dans ma vie de galeriste, le pastel de l’Atelier de la Rue Crussol, m’est particulièrement cher.

Pendant de nombreuses années, j’ai été suffisamment proche de Sam Szafran pour avoir le rare privilège d’entrer régulièrement dans son atelier, celui de Malakoff, et celui encore plus rare d’assister à l’élaboration de plusieurs pastels et fusains et enfin aquarelles dans ce lieu hors du temps. Mais, c’est une lithographie de l’Atelier de la rue Crussol, ma première acquisition de collects ionneur, en 1973, qui fut à l’origine de notre rencontre.

Lorsque William (Louis-Dreyfus) a acquis le pastel de l’Atelier de la Rue Crussol en novembre 1996, nous entretenions déjà une relation amicale. Quelques années auparavant, c’est la recherche d’œuvres de Szafran qui l’avait amené à entrer dans ma galerie au 1 rue d’Alger dans le premier arrondissement. Il en était ressorti avec les cinq tableaux que j’avais pu lui montrer, visiblement ravi. Depuis, fréquemment nous échangions autour des artistes qui nous passionnaient, en premier lieu Sam Szafran, mais aussi le sculpteur Raymond Mason, et, plus près de nous Jean-Baptiste Sécheret, tous trois largement représentés dans sa collects ion et qui seront tous mis à l’honneur à Paris dans des institutions prestigieuses en 2022 (respectivement au Musée de l’Orangerie, au Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris et à la Fondation Custodia).

William, qui nous a quitté en 2016, aurait été très fier et très heureux que ces artistes pour lesquels il s’étaient pris de passion et qu’il a soutenus soient ainsi plébiscités par la critique et le public.

Jacques Elbaz

Sotheby’s is privileged to offer works from the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation and Family collects ions. Amassed by Louis-Dreyfus over fifty years, the collects ion is a reflection of William’s extraordinary foresight, compassion and dedication. A zealous yet thoughtful collects or, a passionate supporter of artists, a published poet, and a lover of trees, William defied labels. Generosity was at the core of his belief system and he was relentlessly committed to the underprivileged.

William was born in 1932 outside of Paris to the Frenchman Pierre Louis-Dreyfus and the American born Dolores Neubauer, who was of Mexican-Brazilian descent. After escaping Nazi-occupied France and moving to the United States, William attended Duke University in 1954 where he received a degree in English and later graduated from the university’s law school. Louis-Dreyfus went on to practice law at Dewey Ballentine in New York City, and from 1969 to his retirement in 2006 he was the chief executive officer of the Louis Dreyfus Group, an international organization of diversified companies that had been wholly owned by the Louis-Dreyfus family since its foundation in 1851. Under his tutelage, he transformed the business into one of the leading global commodities trading platforms, in part because of his strategic recruiting, profit sharing compensation programs, and subsequent talent Retentions .

Louis-Dreyfus’ diverse collects ion re-contextualizes the output of known artists while giving a voice to those whom he felt were unjustly underrepresented. He has been called unpretentious, charming, modest, and self-deprecating; guided solely by aesthetics, an artist’s “notoriety” was of no consequence to William.

The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation and Family collects ions span t.mes periods and continents,

spurring observations on the universal nature of aesthetics and the human condition. He took a particular interest in artists that captured political and social comedy including George Grosz, Honoré Daumier and Raymond Mason as well as those who relished in the amorphous and nonobjective, including Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró and Wassily Kandinsky. William also had a special affinity for artists who trended more towards the representational, like Sam Szafran, whose mastery of medium he also deeply appreciated. By following his instincts and building personal relationships with artists, he built what is arguably one of the most diverse and progressive collects ions in the United States.

In addition to his love of art, William had immense respect for the natural world and in particular loved trees. He felt a certain spiritual connection with trees, which he described in his poem “Adjusting”: “I have a passion for the look of trees, their fixedness, their ecstasy in rising out of ground, arms up in praise of heaven and below, their random symmetry, the light they make that brings the seasons on, their contained thickness that accumulates frail, feckless t.mes . Where else is t.mes more materially revealed.” He planted hundreds of new trees in the land surrounding his home in Mount Kisco, New York, and often hosted the public to his beautiful orchard and gardens.

A published poet and an essayist, Louis-Dreyfus also served as the chairman of the Poetry Society of America from 1998 to 2008. In 2014, he was awarded the Robert Mills Architect.mes dal by The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Advancement of American Art award from the National Academy Museum and School. His lifet.mes work in poetry, Letters Written and Not Sent, was published posthumously in 2019.

A defender of social justice, William especially sought to improve the lives of people of color through philanthropy and was dedicated to educational initiatives including the Harlem Children’s Zone, a pioneering nonprofit organization committed to ending generational poverty in Central Harlem. Part of the proceeds of the sale of works from the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation will go to support the Harlem Children’s Zone and its work.

William Louis-Dreyfus died on September 16, 2016.

康丁斯基曾在《藝術中的精神》一書中形容，創作一件藝術品等於創造一個世界，如果此言當真，那麼薩姆・沙弗蘭就是過去一個世紀以來，其中一位偉大的創造天才。

薩姆・沙弗蘭，原名薩姆・貝格爾，1934年11月9日生於猶太人移民家庭。他不囿於傳統，才華橫溢，加上無人能及的決心和對知識的無盡渴求，筆下的作品因而飽含感染力。他在童年時堪堪逃過1942年7月16日的冬季競賽館抓捕，卻被關進臭名昭彰的德朗西集中營數月之久，繪畫幫助少年沙弗蘭逃離現實，成為他心靈上的避風港。

五十年代初，沙弗蘭在母親和妹妹定居的墨爾本逗留幾年後，考入巴黎大茅舍藝術學院的繪畫課程。課餘時間，他到蒙帕納斯區的咖啡館廣交良朋，並在那裡遇見了後來的導師阿爾伯托・賈柯梅蒂。他與爵士樂手查特・貝克、藝術家讓・保羅・里奧皮勒、雷蒙德・梅森、伊夫・克萊因、亨利・卡蒂爾・布列松和雅克・蓋爾沙什往來甚密，並幫助克萊因發明了著名的克萊因藍（IKB），蓋爾沙什則成為他的首位藝術代理商。

抽象藝術在當時大行其道，沙弗蘭卻獨獨背道而馳，從六十年代開始，以具象繪畫挑戰藝術界現狀。期間，粉彩成為他最愛的創作媒材。他擁有出色的繪圖和用色能力，善於將身邊的日常元素，妙筆化作令人著迷、目眩神搖的建築透視場景，充滿意大利十八世紀藝術家皮拉奈奇的風範。

本作中的貝利尼版畫坊原為第十區的猶太教堂，經沙弗蘭改建成一所蝕刻版畫製作工坊，從1972年起，他以此為題創作大幅粉彩畫，這個張力十足的系列現今已被視為沙弗蘭的代表作。這組為數不多的作品創作於靈感如泉湧之際，構建出沙弗蘭想像中的魔幻世界，巧妙地連接起卡勒波特和霍普筆下的都市生活、卡爾・葛羅斯堡的工業景觀、以及亞佛烈德・希治閣電影裡的光影宇宙。本作為一顯赫美國收藏珍蓄數十載，是貝利尼版畫坊系列第一幅釋出拍賣場的作品。這個系列是當代藝術的結晶，卻同時帶有古典氣息，備受收藏家垂青，其他同系列作品早已納入全球各大知名博物館館藏，當中龐畢度中心的一幅在1983年購入，畫中的貝利尼版畫坊在柔和的粉彩顏料中顯得靜謐動人。

蘇富比隆重呈獻威廉・路易達孚家族收藏。藏品由威廉・路易達孚用五十多年時間蒐集而成，反映他的過人遠見、愛心和熱忱。他是一位懷抱激情但考慮周詳的收藏家，是藝術家的忠實擁護者，同時還是有作品傳世的詩人和愛樹之人——身份定義不了他，他才是定義身份的人。威廉以慷慨為善作為人生信條，一直以來對弱勢社群關顧有加。

威廉在1932年生於巴黎，父親是法國人皮耶・路易達孚，母親是墨西哥與巴西裔美國人朵蘿蕾絲・紐鮑爾。為了逃離納粹佔領的法國，他避走美國，1954年入讀杜克大學，取得英文系學位後，再於法學院深造畢業。他曾在紐約杜威律師事務所從事法律工作，1969年至2006年退休期間擔任路易達孚集團行政總裁，該集團擁有多元化的國際業務，自1851年創辦以來就由路易達孚家族全資擁有。在威廉的帶領下，公司採用策略性招聘和利潤分享福利機制，懂得挽留人才，令集團成為全球領先的農產品貿易和加工企業。

本次上拍的收藏包羅萬有，它將知名藝術家的作品置於全新的語境當中，並給予那些威廉認為應該獲得賞識的藝術家一個發聲的機會。在別人眼中，威廉真誠待人、風度翩翩、謙遜自省。他以作品美學為唯一的收藏宗旨，藝術家的名聲無關緊要。

路易達孚家族收藏涵蓋各個時期的各地藝術，從中可洞見普世美學價值和人類生存景況。威廉對喬治・格羅茲、奧諾雷・杜米埃和雷蒙德・梅森等表現政治社會滑稽鬧劇以及尚・杜布菲、胡安・米羅和瓦西里・康丁斯基等遊走無形體國度的藝術家尤其感興趣。他聽從直覺，與藝術家私下交好，匯成美國其中一個最多元、最具革新意義的藝術收藏。

除了鍾情藝術，威廉敬畏自然，尤其熱愛樹木。他感覺自己與樹木之間有著精神上的靈性紐帶，並在詩歌《Adjusting》中如此慨歎：「我喜愛樹木的樣子，喜歡它們的堅定不移，喜歡它們拔地而起的狂歡、高舉枝椏的天地禮讚，喜歡它們隨機的對稱、宣告季節來臨的光華，喜歡它們累積纖細軟弱的時間、沈澱出厚重。時間又在什麼地方更能實質地顯現呢。」他在自己位於紐約契斯科山的家周圍種植了幾百株新苗，還經常將自家美麗的蘭花和花園開放予公眾參觀。

威廉是一位詩人和散文家，曾經出版作品，1998至2008年間擔任美國詩歌學會主席。2014年，他先後獲史密森尼學會美國藝術博物館和國家學院博物館及學校，頒發「羅伯特・米爾斯建築獎」和「美國藝術貢獻獎」。2019年，收錄其生平作品的詩歌集《Letters Written and Not Sent》在他身故後出版。

威廉致力捍衛社會公義，以公益事業改善有色族裔生活，支持社區教育項目，包括哈林兒童中心——這是一個具前瞻性的非牟利機構，旨在結束哈林中城區的跨代貧窮問題。本次拍賣的部分收益將撥捐哈林兒童中心，維持其日常運作。

威廉・路易達孚於2016年9月16日與世長辭。