Annie Bernheim and Jean Dalsace

The gynecologist Dr. Jean Dalsace and his wife Annie Bernheim were prominent members of the French Communist Party (PCF) and patrons of modern art in Paris. They began to collect in the early 1920s, acquiring works from prominent gallerists and dealers including Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Jeanne Bucher. The couple’s social, political, and aesthetic commitments were intertwined, as Annie hosted the literary and artistic intelligentsia of Paris in salon-style gatherings in their home, the Maison de Verre.

Born to a prominent Jewish family that had made their fortune in real estate, Annie Bernheim married Jean, who became a pioneer of family planning in France. Annie maintained a close friendship with her childhood tutor, Dollie, who had married architect and designer Pierre Chareau. In 1923, the Dalsaces commissioned him to design the interior of their apartment on the boulevard Saint Germain. Five years later they hired Pierre to construct a modern home that reflected the couple’s progressive views: the Maison de Verre, located on the rue Saint-Guillaume in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, was completed in 1932. The house served as the couple’s private residence and cultural meeting place, as well as Jean’s office. Firmly enmeshed in the activities of the PCF, the Dalsaces hosted monthly concerts and salon-style meetings attended by Marxist intellectuals, literary figures, and artists at the Maison de Verre. Writers Louis Aragon, André Breton, and Paul Eluard; artists Max Ernst, Jacques Lipschitz, and Pablo Picasso; and intellectuals Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin were among those who attended.

The Dalsaces assembled a remarkable collection of modern art that was displayed prominently throughout their home alongside furniture designed by Pierre. It seems that they initiated this eclectic practice of combining modern art and newly commissioned furnishings originally in their Saint-Germain apartment. For example, they displayed several tapestries by Jean’s former classmate, Jean Lurçat. The couple also owned sculptures by Lipchitz, including Still Life (1918; Centre Pompidou, Paris) and a bronze portrait bust of Annie Dalsace (1920; location unknown) placed in the doctor's consulting room. They acquired several Cubist paintings and papiers collés, including Georges Braque’s Violin and Pipe “Le quotidien” (1913–14; Centre Pompidou, Paris) and Picasso’s Pipe and Sheet Music (1914; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). They acquired at least two works by Picasso at the fourth Kahnweiler sequestration sale in May 1923: Glass, Bottle of Wine, and Newspaper on a Table (1914; Musée Picasso, Paris) and Glass, Bottle, and Guitar (“Ma Jolie”) (1914; Beyeler Foundation, Switzerland).

Together, the Chareaus and Dalsaces purchased works of art as a collective, or syndicate, that they called L’Oeil Clair in homage to Jules Renard’s book by the same name. According to a 2016 exhibition catalogue, the Dalsaces, the Chareaus, Lurçat, Bucher, Dr. André Cournand, and Sibylle Blumer were all members of the group. In 1937, the syndicate’s collection was sold at auction. The Dalsaces’ political interventions extended to the postwar period, as they hosted gatherings of the Association of Doctors Against War and Fascism, as well as meetings in support of peace in Algeria at the Maison de Verre in the 1950s.