The Collector: Louise and Walter Arensberg

The Collector10.01.2024

The living room of Louise and Walter Arensberg's Apartment on 33 West 67 St, New York, circa 1918.

Chiefly advised by dealer Marius de Zayas and artist Marcel Duchamp, Louise and Walter Arensberg assembled one of the most radical collection of modern art of their time. These photographs taken by Charles Sheeler in 1918 immortalize the New York living room in which they hosted a daily salon for members of the international avant-garde from 1915 through to 1920. The photographs attest to De Zayas’s influence: as in his own galleries, the Arensbergs’ living room features juxtapositions of African and pre-Columbian art, with paintings by the likes of Matisse, Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp. The collection now belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

Photographs: Charles Sheeler Courtesy Whitney Museum of Art, New York

Image: Northwest corner: Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending the Staircase [No. 3]" (1912); Renoir's "Bather" (1917); Picasso's, "Still Life with Bottle of Marc [Nature morte à la bouteille de marc]" (1911), "Still Life with a Violin and a Guitar" (1912-1913), and "Female Nude" (1910) as well as Georges Braque's, "Fox" (1911) amongst others.

Section of east wall (clockwise from top left): Duchamp, “Dulcinea” (1911), “Chocolate Grinder” (No.1); Francis Picabia “Physical Culture” (1913); Duchamp, “Yvonne and Magdeleine Torn in Tatters” (1911); “Henri Rousseau / 'Landscape with Cattle”, (c. 1900), “Village Street” (1909); Duchamp, “The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes” (1912); Alfred Stieglitz “Sans titre, dessin de Pablo Picasso” (1915)
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Southeast corner: (beginning from middle toward right): Constantin Brancusi, “The Prodigal Son” (1914); Henri Matisse, “Ritratto di Yvonne Landsberg” (1914); Braque, “Violin and Newspaper” (1912-1913) and “Musical Forms” (1918)
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Section of south wall: Duchamp “La sonate (Sonata)” (1911); Duchamp, “Broyeuse de chocolat” (1914); Duchamp “Nude Descending a Staircase [No. 2]" (1912)
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