When Roger Dutilleul (1872-1956) discovered the work of Bernard Buffet in the late 1940s, he had behind him a lifetime as a collector marked particularly by his taste for Amedeo Modigliani and Cubism, notably Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Fernand Léger. A collector since 1904, he always knew how to follow his taste and inclinations with great independence, amassing in his Parisian apartment works by artists as diverse as Joan Miró, Henri Laurens, Eugène Kermadec, André Lanskoy, or the naive painters André Bauchant and Camille Bombois.
He was passionate primarily about artists rather than movements. He was thus very divided on Cubism as a school, as indicated by several notes found in books from his library that provide a better understanding of his personality and tastes. In André Salmon's L'art vivant, after commenting on the statement "[Picasso] true leader of the school" with a "if there is a school!", he underlined the following passage: "It is certainly permissible to moderately enjoy the pleasures that Cubism claims to provide to the art lover. One can be interested in the intelligent research, the geometric and plastic investigations of one or two artists responsible for Cubism, without tipping one's hat to all the productions of all these gentlemen of the school." This attachment to painters rather than movements was confirmed at the end of his life by his enthusiasm for Bernard Buffet's painting.
BERNARD BUFFET AT ROGER DUTILLEUL'S (excerpt)
Corinne Barbant, Head of the Dominique Bozo Library, LaM Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary Art and Art Brut
