Art: Unfinished Business

In Montparnasse cafes last week, Parisians, who dearly love to argue about the art of law and the laws of art, pondered a question over their aperitifs. The question: “When is a work of art finished?”

The answer was at the heart of the Latin Quarter’s latest cause celebre, the case of Georges Rouault, artist, v. the heirs of Ambroise Vollard, dealer. The case history went back to about 1914, when Rouault was an out-at-elbows modernist and Vollard was an up-&-coming dealer, one of the few who bought modern paintings. He gave Rouault a studio in his own house and advanced him 50,000 francs (then $10,000)—thereby obtaining all his work in progress and a lien on future paintings.

When Vollard died in a 1939 auto crash, he had 807 unfinished Rouault canvases. Value at present prices, according to Rouault: about $1 million. (Recently an 8 in. by 12 in. Rouault sold in Paris for $3,000.) Aging (75) Painter Rouault went to court to get them back, claimed them as his “intellectual property.”

Last week a French court upheld him. The court ruled: the artist is the sole owner of all his work as long as it is unsigned, and he has the right to change or even destroy it. The Vollard heirs were ordered to return the 807 Rouaults to him in a month, or pay him 100,000 francs (now $840) apiece. The court ordered Rouault to pay the heirs a sum yet to be determined to wipe off Vollard’s bill. Rouault expects to “finish up” only about 30 of the paintings. Among other things, Rouault has gone increasingly religious in his work, has little interest in his earlier daubery.