Laurent Monnier

A French art collector and patron, Laurent Monnier amassed an important collection of work by artists associated with Cubism and facilitated sales of work by his artist friends, becoming an influential figure in the Paris art world from the 1920s onward.

Monnier’s involvement with the creative community in early twentieth-century Paris drew him toward Cubism, and he formed lasting friendships with many of the style’s prominent artists, among them María Blanchard, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Albert Gleizes, Henri Laurens, Fernand Léger, André Lhote, and Chana Orloff. These connections resulted in several commissioned portraits of Monnier, his wife, and their daughter during the 1920s and 1930s.

Monnier was a member of the sixth and final generation of his family to run the Forges de Baudin, a metal foundry that operated from 1794 to 1959. He had begun his professional life as a diplomat. When his older brother decided not to follow in the family business, Laurent took over the role of director in 1933 and divided his time between Paris and the Jura region in eastern France, where the Forges de Baudin was located. Monnier expanded the foundry’s production beyond cast-iron cookware and ornaments to include large enameled pieces created with artists, including Jean Dunand, Gustave Miklos, and François-Louis Schmied. One such collaboration was a 1932 commission for ornate sliding chapel doors, designed by Monnier and Schmied, for the ocean liner SS Normandie.

Monnier was an early admirer of Cubism, and his support helped boost the livelihood of its practitioners during their nascent careers. In February 1919 Léger had his first solo show at Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie de l’Effort Moderne in Paris, at which Monnier purchased item no. 54, a gouache, The Tugboat, for 150 francs (1918; Menil Collection, Houston).

Léger painted Monnier’s portrait in 1920, and the two remained friends; Monnier acquired further works by the artist during the 1920s. In May 1923 the fourth and final sequestration sale of stock from the Galerie Kahnweiler was held at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Monnier bought several oil paintings from Léger’s most important and iconic series, Contrastes de Formes (Contrasts of Forms), including lot 304, Paysage No.2 (1914; Pinakothek, Munich) and lot 306, Eléments géométriques (1914; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart).

In the same year, at the annual Salon des Indépendants, Monnier acquired two paintings by Delaunay-Terk, nos. 1272 & 1273, both entitled Danseuse Espagnole (1917; private collection). This was the artist’s first sale, and with it Monnier became her first patron; they began a longterm friendship. Also in 1923, Delaunay painted portraits of Monnier on the reverse of two of Delaunay-Terk’s canvases from 1913, and Monnier organized an event at the Hôtel Claridge in Paris to raise money for the influx of Russian refugees to France, at which Delaunay-Terk presented a fashion show of her costume designs. Over the decades, Monnier readily loaned works from his collection by Léger, Delaunay, and Delaunay-Terk to exhibitions.

Beyond his role as a collector, Monnier helped to establish a collection of modern art in Grenoble that became one of the most significant of the first half of the twentieth century. He assisted the director of the Grenoble Museum, Pierre-André Farcy, during his tenure from 1919 until 1949. Monnier facilitated introductions to his Paris-based artist friends that resulted in important acquisitions and donations. One such acquisition was Léger’s painting Le Remorquer (1920), bought from the artist in 1928 with Monnier acting as intermediary. Monnier also persuaded Gleizes to donate his large painting Espace rythmé selon le plan (1920) to the museum in 1927.

After Léger’s death in 1955 and at the insistence of the artist’s widow, Monnier mobilized his foundry to assist in casting large-scale iron elements for the Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot, France. He also agreed to lend as many as ten works by the artist from his own collection to Léger’s posthumous retrospective in 1956, which toured to seven venues around Europe.

Despite Monnier’s influential patronage, there are few published references to him. Nevertheless, his personal correspondence, held in a private collection, reveals his important role as a collector, advocate, and promoter of modern art.