This week, let's paint the portrait of a couple of unavoidable antique dealers. Driven by a common passion, Patrice and Annie Saltel have crossed the years as we walk a museum, glances crossed on the works they love. No varnish for the gallery Saltel, a love for life as colorful as the canvases of L'École de Paris that they exhibit.
How did you come to be antique dealers ?
It is above all a story of passion. At the age of barely 20, we were already collecting. However, at the start we did not exercise the profession of antique dealer at all, we had a ready-to-wear shop.
We had assembled a beautiful collection of paintings and in 1990, we opened a gallery. We participated in a large number of fairs, mainly in the south and in 1997, we settled in Paul Bert Serpette. We are real autodidacts.
What can we find on your booth ?
We mainly present paintings from the 1950s and more particularly works by artists from the Paris School. They are artists born in the years 1910-1920 and who worked during the post-war period.
We are particularly attached to certain painters such as Jacques Lagrange, an important artist who had notably produced the sets for the film "Mon Oncle" by Jacques Tati. He is one of those artists who relaunched Aubusson's tapestry. He will probably be the subject of our next exhibition.
We will also create an exhibition on Pierre Gougerot, an artist we love and whose workshop background we have bought. We are currently preparing the catalog raisonné.
Has it always been easy to work as a couple?
We get along very well and have the same tastes, which means that we have always been in agreement in our choices. We do everything together and have always been very good at combining things. We knew each other very young, that's our whole life we spent together!
Tell us about the exhibition you are presenting right now
Currently, we are exhibiting Georges Hillaireau, an artist born in 1884 in Saint Ouen and died in 1954 and whom we have been following for a very long time. This painter was recognized and appreciated by his peers, notably Vieira da Silva and Lanskoy. He was very friends with Nicolas de Staël. He is an artist who has been exhibited by large galleries.
A room is dedicated to him at the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon and it is also possible to see drawings at the Pompidou center.
Recently, we were able to acquire about twenty works and that is why we decided to present them. Many date from before 1945, or just after. What we know about the work of Hillaireau is spreads over only around twenty years. The most figurative works date from the early 1940s while the most abstract are later. It is thanks to this that we can date his paintings.
What does Paul Bert Serpette represent for you?
It took us a very long time to settle here and if it had to be done again, we would have come sooner. Paul Bert Serpette is undeniably the place to be!
