Robert René Meyer-Sée
| Robert René Meyer-Sée | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1884 |
| Died | After 1947 |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Art dealer |
| Spouse(s) | Grace Mercia Sibley |
Robert René Meyer-Sée (1884 – after 1947) was a French art dealer and critic who was instrumental in organising the exhibition of Futurist painting at The Sackville Gallery in London in 1912. He ran the Marlborough Gallery where he organised an exhibition by the Italian Futurist Gino Severini, and was involved in a court case with an implication of fraud. Later, he moved to the United States.
Meyer-Sée was born in Dijon, France, in 1884, the son of a viticulturist and wine merchant. He was educated at the Condorcet Lycee and the École des Hautes Études Sociales et Commerciales in Paris. He travelled to England in 1902. In 1905 he married Grace Mercia Sibley. At the time of his marriage, Meyer-Sée was described as a "motor salesman".
Meyer-Sée worked as a manager for Martin Henry Colnaghi. After Colnaghi died, Meyer-Sée was a co-director, with Max Rothschild, at The Sackville Gallery, location of the 1912 Exhibition of the works of the Italian Futurist Painters, which he played a large part in organising. Meyer-Sée bought two Severini paintings from the show, Yellow Dancers (c. 1911–12) and The Boulevard (1910–11).
In August 1912, Meyer-Sée left The Sackville Gallery to run Rothschild's Marlborough Gallery at 34 Duke Street, London, along with his wife and Sam H. Nyburg. In April 1913 he organised an exhibition there by Gino Severini, one of the Futurists who had taken part in the 1912 exhibition. Severini lived with Meyer-Sée and his wife during the exhibition but there was tension over money and the titles given to the paintings. Severini wrote, "Sée is a pig and he is screwing me but I need him". Despite organising two exhibitions featuring Futurist art, Meyer-Sée was principally a dealer in old master paintings and not sympathetic to the Futurist aesthetic. Severini wrote to Filippo Marinetti, "I have to sustain our moral cause energetically since our friend Sée openly says he doesn’t give a damn."
Grace Meyer-Sée, née Grace Mercia Sibley, was born in Australia. She claimed descent from the aristocratic Sibley-Braithwaites but there is no proof of this connection. Grace had an art collection in her own right which was sold in Paris in December 1912.
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