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The story of art may have been very different had Pablo Picasso not made the acquaintance of the art collector Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
Kahnweiler (pronounced kaan-vyler) was a German-born art historian and dealer.
Only in his mid-20s — just like Picasso — he had begun visiting the studios of young artists living in the Paris districts of Montparnasse and Montmartre, eager to promote new modes of painting.
For some artists he came across, including Picasso and George Braque, he pledged an annual income in exchange for exclusivity on anything they produced. Such a contract has the effect of freeing an artist from financial worries and, more importantly perhaps, the need to impress a marketplace with their work.
“What would have become of us if Kahnweiler hadn’t had a business sense?” Picasso later said of the man who became one of the most significant art dealers of the 20th century.
