COLLECTORS WITH PANACHE
A Passion for Poussin
Véronique and Louis-Antoine Prat's three centuries of French drawings.

By Diana Mehl

Louis-Antoine and Véronique Prat.

Simon Vouet, Bust of a Woman Holding an Urn, circa 1644, black chalk heightened with white on buff paper.

François Boucher, Bacchus, before 1749, black, red, and white chalk, and stump on cream paper.

Georges Pierre Seurat, House Under the Trees, previously called The Haunted House, circa 1883, conté crayon.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Portrait of Pierre Baillot, 1829, graphite on paper stretched on its original tablet.

Jean-Pierre Houël, View of the Organ Fountain at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, circa 1769 - 1772, watercolor and gouache.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Dream of Ossian, 1811 - 1812, pen and brown ink and watercolor; squared with graphite, framing line done with pen and brown ink.

Passion for Drawing:  Poussin to Cézanne,  Works from the  Prat Collection October 8 – December 4 Gibbes Museum of Art Charleston, SC 843.722.2706 www.gibbesmuseum.org Fête des Beaux Art, a Masquerade Ball Friday, October 14 8 pm - 12 am $100 per person 843.722.2706, x26 This elegant French fête is held in celebration of Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cézanne, Works from the Prat Collection and honors special guests Véronique and Louis-Antoine Prat and Dr. Pierre Rosenberg. Behind the Scenes With Collector Louis-Antoine Prat Sunday, October 16 3:00 – 4:30 pm, Lecture Free with admission to the Museum.

For more than 30 years Véronique and Louis-Antoine Prat have painstakingly assembled one of the world's best private collections of French drawings. Spanning three centuries (1600 – 1900), from the late mannerist style of Jacques Callot through the Impressionist works of Manet, Degas and Cézanne, the collection is a celebration of the genius of French draftsmanship and includes works by such masters as Poussin, Boucher, Watteau, David, Ingres and Millet, among many others.

    One hundred of these works will be displayed in October at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC, in an exhibition that is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, VA.

    In addition to being a celebrated connoisseur and collector, Prat is also a distinguished art scholar who, together with Pierre Rosenberg, director emeritus of the Louvre, has written the catalogues raisonnés of the drawings of Poussin, Watteau and David. In addition to authoring many articles on such artists as Delacroix and Ingres, Prat has compiled a two-volume inventory of the 2,200 drawings by the 19th-century artist Theodore Chassériau. Since 1976, he has served as an adviser and curator to the Louvre's department of graphic arts.

    In an interview with Panache, Louis-Antoine Prat recounts the joys and challenges of building a great collection.

Your father was also an art collector.
I especially wanted to have one drawing from my father in the catalog. He died when I was six and a half, and he left me with two big houses – one in the country and one in Nice – with plenty of works of art. But these pieces were not of fabulous quality because my father was a businessman who didn't have time to study art. He was an amateur, instinctively mixing works of art that he liked. For years I said I must not sell anything of my father's. But I finally did when I began to collect because I needed money to buy much better things. I kept three drawings, including one by Eugène Isabey that is in the exhibition. I also kept a lot of furniture because my father was a better amateur in furniture.

The legacy he left you must have had quite an impact.
I was surrounded by works of art, which for a child is not very amusing because they are fragile. But I was looking at them, and my mother was also interested in art. We went to the Louvre often. I attended l'Ecole du Louvre, which is a marvelous school – six-year courses for the degree, which I received in 1976. I began to collect in 1974. At that time I had to sell my father's house in Nice. I asked my wife, who was also at the school, what we would do with the money. We decided to try to amass a collection and, as we had both studied drawing at the Louvre, we said we would collect drawings. I sold the house in February and began to buy in March.

How did you decide to concentrate on French drawings?
When I started to collect, I bought Dutch, Italian, French and some 20th-century drawings. But I was finding important and interesting French drawings more easily. At the time the collection was very big – there were more than 1,000 drawings. Later I thought I first must get rid of the foreign drawings and collect in the field I know – between Poussin and Cézanne. I have written a lot on Poussin, Watteau, David and many 19th-century artists, such as Delacroix. So I collected between 1600 and 1900.

Your collecting has changed over the years.
That is true. Twenty years ago I was coming home twice a week with a drawing under my arm. Now it is twice a year. Naturally, when you are younger, it is very amusing to buy. At the time you say you have all this stuff. Later you say it is not all that interesting. But there are things that you must have. As I am not a big money maker, I have to find the money. The drawings have become more and more expensive. I am interested in the 19th-century academic artists and have kept some – the catalog has a big Fromentin drawing, for example – but these artists are not so rare. It is my work as a collector to keep these sorts of things.

You have at times waited to add an artist to the collection because you were looking for a drawing of the right quality.
Naturally you have artists you like more than others. I was not absolutely passionate about Redon, but I said maybe I should buy Redon. Finally, one of my friends offered me an extraordinary Redon drawing – Suspended Head, Wearing a Chain, which is in the catalog. I got what must be one of the best ones. I am very happy with the Redon, but I don't consider it one of my favorites.

You are a great art scholar. Can you explain how much research you do?
For ancient art you must have a certain connoisseurship in order to make your own attributions. A true collector must know nearly everything on the artist he collects. There is now an enormous amount of information available. If you are an art historian, when you see a drawing you don't just say, well, it is good. You must think, is it the best I can find? For some artists you have to make a choice. An artist such as Seurat is so expensive and sought after by all the big collectors of drawings in the world. The first Seurat I got was the littlest one– Bootblack With His Customer. It is not good enough. After that I found Woman on a Parapet, which is a very important Seurat, and, two years after, I was offered The Haunted House. The catalog quotes Alfred Barr [the founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York] as saying that this is probably one of the most beautiful drawings by Seurat. There you have a progression. Naturally I was not thinking I could find these drawings, but it happens. You also have other artists who are much more rare. When Pierre Rosenberg and I published the new catalogue raisonné of Poussin, we accepted 380 drawings, with only 35 drawings in private hands. Since it was published more than ten years ago only one or two good drawings have reappeared. Among the 35, there are 20 that are not very interesting because they are copies of antiques and engravings. When I found the second Poussin, Pluto Abducting Proserpine, I was very happy. I already had Poussin's Sheet of Studies of Animals, Figures and Buildings. But the second Poussin is a masterwork. It is for this Poussin that I sold all of my 20th-century drawings.

Why are you collecting drawings?
First, as a matter of practicality. If you are not very rich you cannot collect big paintings. I love artists but I am not so attracted to paintings – they are very expensive and there are many problems of conservation. Drawings are the first draft of genius, the first emotions. That appeals to me. They are so fragile. Sometimes you don't find a drawing with a pretty mount and a fine frame. You find them at the end of a miserable portfolio. They have adventures and it is a marvel they should arrive to us. They are fragile yet they have escaped destruction.

What do you look for when you buy a drawing?
I look for the components of the collection. I am not against buying drawings by artists that are already represented with four or five drawings. It can be a question of filling holes. Some artists are still missing – Gauguin, for example. For a long time I did not have a Millet – I didn't find a Millet that was good enough. I found two practically at the same time from two completely different sources. The drawing Landscape Near Vichy belonged to an old friend. I had once tried to exchange an entire portfolio of Italian drawings for it, and he turned me down. But after his death, one of his sons sold me the drawing. I had seen the second, The Wool Carder, years ago. It belonged to Henry Moore, the great sculptor. His collection had been exhibited in Paris after his death. I remember thinking I would like to get this marvelous drawing one day. His daughter sold it through the Wildenstein Gallery.

Your collection emphasizes the human figure rather than landscapes.
I have a few still lifes and some landscapes. I like drawings related to great paintings and drawings that tell stories. Many paintings by great masters had human figures. I like the human figure. I have written novels and am interested in people.

Why do you mark your drawings with your collector's stamp?
I was influenced by stories of collectors of the past who all had a stamp. It is very useful to see the pedigree of the drawing – in whose hands it has passed through the centuries. And it is an honor to put your stamp next to one of the great past collectors whom you respect. What a pleasure it was to put my stamp next to Mariette and Chennevières, two of the biggest French collectors of 18th- and 19th- century drawings.

Does your wife have a role in your collection?
My wife is an art journalist – she is chief editor of Figaro magazine, the Saturday supplement of Le Figaro. She is very interested in the collection. She likes the drawings, too, but is not interested in the chase. We share an interest in the same artists.

What do you want to add to the collection?
Gaugin, one more Seurat, a better Claude Lorrain.

What are you greatest purchases?
The Poussin, Pluto Abducting Proserpine; Haunted House by Seurat; Portrait of Pierre Baillot by Ingres.

Which is your favorite piece?
Always the one that will be coming next.