Wilhelm Uhde

Wilhelm Uhde was a German art historian, collector, dealer, and curator. He began collecting as early as 1905 and was an early supporter of Cubism and Fauvism.

Uhde started out as a law student, but eventually abandoned it in favor of art history, which he studied in Munich and Florence before moving to Paris in 1904. There, he befriended Pablo Picasso, and in 1909 Uhde commissioned the artist to paint his portrait, which was executed in the Cubist Analytic style (Portrait of Wilhelm Uhde, 1910). The collector was also a champion of naïve art, particularly the work of Henri Rousseau, and he actively promoted avant-garde art in France and abroad. Uhde organized exhibitions at his own gallery at rue Notre Dame des Champs in Montparnasse, shows that included works by Georges Braque, André Derain, Auguste Herbin, Jean Metzinger, and Picasso. In 1908 he launched a traveling exhibition of Impressionist art that went to Basel and Zürich, and in 1912 mounted a posthumous retrospective dedicated to Rousseau at Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris. Uhde also opened his private collection to the public and held informal gatherings at his apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis, salons that were attended by Braque, Robert Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, and Picasso. From 1908 until 1910 Uhde was married to the artist Sonia Terk (later Sonia Terk Delaunay). For both parties, it was a marriage of convenience.

At the outbreak of World War I, Uhde returned to Germany. Like other German citizens living in France, including his friend the Cubist dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Uhde was declared an enemy alien by the French government. As a result, his art collection was sequestered and sold at a public auction in 1921 (Hȏtel Drouot, Paris, May 30, 1921). The catalogue listed 73 paintings and works on paper, among them 18 Braques and 16 Picassos, including Uhde’s Cubist portrait. Immediately after the war, Uhde continued to participate in Germany’s artistic circles and the art market by taking a position at the Galerie Gurlitt in Berlin (Wolfgang Gurlitt). Together with his life-partner, the painter Helmut Kolle, Uhde returned to France in 1924 where he remained for the rest of his life. He concentrated on writing and publishing, including his memoirs.