GERARD LEVY Photographies
Premières et dernières collections

Auction: 2 June 2021, 2pm

Online Catalogue: here
PDF Download: here

This June, the Millon Auction House will be writing the final chapter in the sale of the collections of one of the leading figures in the postwar art market.

Known as "the man with the carnation" for the flower that he used to wear on his lapel everyday, Gérard Lévy (1934-2016) was as talented in his search for Asian art as he was in his search for old photographs.

On June 1st and 2nd, nearly 500 lots, Asian art items, fans, books and photographs, will be auctioned by MILLON in friendly collaboration with BARON RIBEYRE.

Gérard Lévy is acknowledged by the vast majority of art world insiders as a genuine connoisseur, both a researcher and a nugget finder.

He wandered the art world in search of the Object, which reflects its history, from the Asian civilisation of the 3rd century BC to 19th century old photographs.

No piece entered his gallery by chance. Each work of art was handpicked for its unusual character and Gérard Lévy knew how to combine them beyond their appearance.

Many early prints will be presented at this auction.

Gustave Le Gray will be honoured with a rare marine: "Deux bateaux au Havre" 1856, of which only two prints are known to exist, one in a private American collection and the other in Gérard Lévy's. The friends and followers of Gustave Le Gray will be shown with an outstanding print by Henri Le Sec, "Cour de ferme troglodyte" 1851-53. 51x38 cm, and also the followers of G. Le Gray's "gaze" with prints by William Henri Guehard, Eugène le Dien, and a set of twelve prints made in Egypt by John Beasley Green in 1854.

Travel will also be featured with prints on salted paper by Alexis de Lagrange of India in 1851 and Désiré Charnay of Mexico in 1859, Julien Vallou de Villeuneuve, Félix Moulin, Gaudenzio Marconi and the daguerreotypes depicting the nude section of this era.

"Human zoos" or "black villages" is one of Gérard Lévy's very special and unusual collections – a worldwide phenomenon of "ethnographic shows", dating from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. All over the world, people from remote regions are "exhibited" and "put in situation" in lodges that are meant to recreate their own villages. In France, the Jardin d'Acclimatation was the main relay for this craze, holding 33 exhibitions over the period 1877 to 1931.

Gérard Lévy has gathered a large selection of photographs on this topic: more than 3,000 images from albums, postcards, posters and various documents brought together in a single lot valued about €40,000.

In addition to his passion for the primitives of 19th century photography, Gérard Lévy has invested himself in the quest for subjects outside the classic paths by also collecting images of the judicial police - an album of criminal cases in Strasbourg in 1921 - direct vision stereoscopic photographs by Eugène Estanave and also, at the end of his latest collections, the controversial theme of brothels. Amateur and professional photographers dealt with this subject, with or without modesty, until 1945, when these places of pleasure were closed. The last wink of an eye from Gérard Levy.