Viscount Alain de Léché

Viscount Alain de Léché was a French writer and socialite from an aristocratic family. His interests included film and art, and his collection of the latter encompassed artists linked to Cubism and Purism.

In the 1920s, residing in Paris as well as its wealthy suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, de Léché published two books of poetry: Absence (1924), which was promoted in Léonce Rosenberg’s Bulletin de L’Effort Moderne, and Parti sans adresse (Left without Address; 1926). Rosenberg cultivated de Léché’s artistic interests during this period. In 1926, he accompanied de Léché to visit Raoul La Roche’s collection of Cubist and Purist art, installed in La Roche’s house designed by Le Corbusier.

De Léché traveled to the United States for the first time in 1928 and returned there on several occasions over the course of the following decade. The plot of his novel Mr. Goldberg’s Party, or leaves from the travel diary of a young French nobleman in America, published two years later, appears to be inspired by his first sojourn in the United States. From 1930 to 1932, de Léché worked in Hollywood for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s foreign production department as a writer of film scripts for foreign releases. Subsequently, he may have worked in a similar capacity for the German film company UFA (Universum Film GA).

De Léché assembled his art collection during the interwar period. He purchased works from Rosenberg’s Galerie L’Effort Moderne as well as from artists directly. For example, de Léché purchased Fernand Léger’s The Baluster (1925; The Museum of Modern Art, New York) from the artist. The work was among the examples of Purist art that Le Corbusier selected for his Pavilion L’Esprit Nouveau at the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels in Paris. De Léché also owned the artist’s earlier work, The Village (1914; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection). In April 1930, together with Léger, the viscount visited the studio of Henri Laurens and received from the artist a papier collé, Flute and Guitar (1917; Artcurial, sale, June 30, 2009). Among Juan Gris’s works in de Léché’s possession were Bottle of Rosé Wine (1914; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from the The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection), The Bottle (1914; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection), Glass and Checkerboard (1914; Cooper with Potter 1977, no. 115), The White Tablecloth (1912−16; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), and Jug and Water Bottle (1925; Cooper with Potter 1977, no. 502). Two Cubist works by Picasso include de Léché’s name in their provenance as well: the painting The Pigeon (The Wounded Bird) (1912; unknown, Daix 492) and the papier collé titled Violin on a Table (1912; The Menil Collection, Houston). He also owned art by Georges Braque, Louis Marcoussis, Francis Picabia, and at least two 1926 canvases by Georges Valmier. De Léché lent many of these works to the spring 1935 exhibition Les créateurs du cubisme (The Creators of Cubism) presented in Paris by the publications Beaux-Arts and Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

During World War II de Léché resided in Paris and was involved in the art market, acting as a middleman between French collectors and German buyers, among them the internationally active dealer, Dr. Hans Wendland.