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Ernest Brummer (1891–1964)

Ernest Brummer (1891–1964)

The Parisian art dealer Ernest Brummer (1891–1964) and his brothers Joseph Brummer (1883–1947) and Imre Brummer (1895–1928) had an antiquities shop at 3, boulevard Raspail. Joseph had opened the business in 1906 at 6, boulevard Raspail; Imre probably joined the business in January 1911, and Ernest probably joined in November 1911. Ernest Brummer had studied music and art history in Hungary. In Paris, Ernest pursued art courses at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre, where he studied with Salomon Reinach, who had recently been appointed director of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales. By early 1912, the business was called Brummer Frères – Brummer Curiosités. Ernest remained in Paris after Joseph and Imre left for the United States in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War. The gallery would remain at 3, boulevard Raspail until the early 1920s, when Ernest would relocate it to 36, rue de Miromesnil, after Ernest and Joseph had a falling out. After the war, Joseph opened a second shop at 203 bis, boulevard Saint Germain. The brothers were reconciled by 1924 and participated in a transatlantic partnership until Joseph's death in 1947. After joining the business in Paris, Ernest traveled extensively throughout Europe to acquire works of art for the gallery. The Brummers dealt initially in African tribal arts before branching out into ancient, medieval, contemporary French, and pre-Columbian art.

 

Branislav Anđelković and Jonathan P. Elias, “Ernest Brummer and the Coffin of Nefer-renepet from Akhmim,” Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology, n.s. 8, no. 2 (2013): 565–584 (esp. 568–571).

Elizabeth P. Benson, "The Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art: A Memoir," in Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past, ed. Elizabeth Hill Boone (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1993), 18.

Yaëlle Biro, “African Arts between Curios, Antiquities, and Avant-garde at the Maison Brummer, Paris (1908–1914),” Journal of Art Historiography 12 (June 2015): 1–15.

Caroline Bruzelius with Jill Meredith, The Brummer Collection of Medieval Art (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991), 1–11.

Bonnie Effros, "Art of the ‘Dark Ages,’ Showing Merovingian Artefacts in North American Public and Private Collections," Journal of the History of Collections 17, no. 1 (2005): 94–95.

William H. Forsyth, “The Brummer Brothers: An Instinct for the Beautiful,” Art News 73, no. 8 (1974): 106–07.

Galerie Koller, The Ernest Brummer Collection: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Art; Auction Sale from the 16th to 19th October 1979 at the Grand Hotel Dolder (Zurich: Galerie Koller and Spink & Son, 1979), 11–12.