The 1927 Bernheim-Jeune Exhibition: When Paris Embraced an American Expressionist. By the Clivette Estate

In the summer of 1927, something remarkable happened on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. At Galerie Bernheim-Jeune—the legendary gallery that had championed Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves—a solo exhibition opened featuring the work of an American painter few in Europe had heard of: Merton Clivette.

The exhibition represented a stunning validation for an artist whose path to recognition had been anything but conventional.

From New York Sensation to Paris Recognition

The road to Bernheim-Jeune began six months earlier in New York. In January 1927, art dealer George S. Hellman mounted Clivette's first major solo exhibition at the New Gallery on Madison Avenue. The response was immediate and overwhelming.

As the New York Evening Post reported on January 15, 1927:

"Critics and painters of considerable note were staring at the mad motion and the gorgeous color of his canvases... and calling them wonderful. Then they began to buy. Since the exhibition began, three days ago, more than thirty of the paintings have been bought at prices ranging from $300 to $2,000."

The buyers weren't casual collectors. Sculptor Jo Davidson acquired work, as did Paul Manship. Fellow painters Maurice Sterne, Edward Bruce, and Waldo Pierce purchased canvases. Henry McBride, the influential critic for the New York Sun, wrote approvingly of "Clivette, the Impressionist" and his dynamic compositional energy.

The Art News captured the excitement on January 29, 1927:

"It is quite probable that most of the people who have gone to see the exhibition of Clivette's paintings have expected a hearty laugh... It was, until recently, the general impression that his work belonged in the latter place. Therefore one was prepared to scoff. Clivette has fooled everybody."

Why Bernheim-Jeune Mattered

When news of Clivette's New York success crossed the Atlantic, it caught the attention of Paris's art establishment. The Art Digest reported in August 1927:

"Merton Clivette, the 78-year-old American artist who had a sensational debut last January at the New Galleries in New York, when scores of pictures were sold, is having an exhibition at the galleries of Bernheim Jeune in Paris."

The significance of this venue cannot be overstated. Galerie Bernheim-Jeune wasn't merely a successful commercial gallery—it was the institution that had helped establish Post-Impressionism and Fauvism as legitimate artistic movements. The gallery had given early exhibitions to artists who would become foundational figures in modern art. For an American painter to receive a solo show there was exceptional; the gallery rarely exhibited American artists.

The Paris New York Herald printed a three-column illustrated feature on the exhibition, headlined "Clivette, Mysterious 'Man in Black,'" introducing French audiences to the artist's unusual background as a former vaudeville performer turned painter.

The Luxembourg Acquisition

The most consequential outcome of the Bernheim-Jeune exhibition came when the French government, through its Director of Fine Arts, selected one of Clivette's works for the Luxembourg Museum—France's national museum dedicated to living artists.

This was institutional validation of the highest order. The Luxembourg served as the gateway to the Louvre; works that entered the Luxembourg during an artist's lifetime could later be transferred to France's most prestigious museum after the artist's death. For an American artist to be acquired by the Luxembourg placed Clivette in rare company.

As Henry Rankin Poore noted in his 1931 book Modern Art, Why, What and How:

"Although France may claim the credit of introducing modern art to the world it is not generally known that before Paul Cézanne had sponsored cubism and Henri Matisse freedom, an American citizen was working out kindred theories... The French Government, through its Director of Fine Arts, selected an example from this exhibition which is destined for Luxembourg."

The Work That Captivated Paris

What did French audiences see in Clivette's paintings? Contemporary critics consistently noted his vigorous technique and physical approach to mark-making.

The Christian Science Monitor wrote on December 31, 1927, describing his second New Gallery exhibition:

"Clivette, that colorful individuality in paint who made something of a stir with his last year's exhibition at the same gallery, is again on view, but with even more zest and substance than before in his work. He presents the interesting spectacle of a rampant individualist at close grips with himself and his medium, who, by virtue of his wide determination to achieve a mastery over both, dares at each and every step to storm the pictorial heights, technically as well as thematically."

This physical energy—what critics called his "preoccupation with color, light and demoniac motion"—derived from Clivette's sixteen years as a professional acrobat and vaudevillian. He had toured the Orpheum Circuit from 1891 to 1907, and that training informed how he approached the canvas.

The New York Times recognized the European affinities in his work, observing that "Clivette was the forerunner of Soutine"—a remarkable comparison linking him to the Lithuanian-French Expressionist who was then gaining recognition in Paris.

A Bridge Between Continents

The Bernheim-Jeune exhibition positioned Clivette as a significant figure in the transatlantic exchange between American and European modernism. He wasn't merely imitating European styles; he was developing a distinctly physical, gestural approach that aligned with Expressionist currents while remaining rooted in his uniquely American background.

Fellow artist Maurice Sterne, who championed Clivette's work to Hellman, noted compositional similarities to Cézanne's self-portraits while observing that Clivette's approach emphasized spontaneous gestural freedom over Cézanne's deliberate, architectural control.

The Aftermath

The momentum from 1927 continued. In 1928, Clivette exhibited at the Milwaukee Gallery and the Speed Memorial Gallery in Louisville. In 1929, he showed at the Art Center in New York with collector Gustave Nassauer. And in 1930, less than a year before his death, he was included in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans"—mounted during MoMA's first year of operation—alongside Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, and George Luks.

Then, in May 1931, Clivette died at age 62. His work, preserved by his family, would remain largely unseen for nearly a century.

Why It Matters Now

The 1927 Bernheim-Jeune exhibition matters because it represents documented, institutional recognition at the highest level of the international art world. This wasn't promotional hype or regional enthusiasm—this was the gallery of Cézanne and Van Gogh mounting a solo show for an American painter, followed by acquisition for France's national collection of contemporary art.

When we consider why Clivette disappeared from art history while contemporaries like Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley became canonical figures, timing emerges as a crucial factor. Clivette died in 1931, just as Abstract Expressionism was beginning to emerge. He never had the opportunity to be positioned within that movement's narrative, despite developing techniques that anticipated it by two decades.

The Bernheim-Jeune exhibition stands as evidence that in his own time, Clivette's significance was recognized by the most discerning institutions in the art world. The rediscovery now underway isn't about inflating a minor figure—it's about recovering an artist whose international reputation was cut short by an early death.

Sources:

• New York Evening Post, January 15, 1927

• New York Sun, January 15, 1927 (Henry McBride)

• The Art News, January 29, 1927

• The Art Digest, August 1927

• Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 1927

• Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 1927

• Poore, Henry Rankin. Modern Art, Why, What and How (1931)

• Artnet auction records (exhibition provenance)

The Clivette Estate is working to recover the legacy of American Expressionist painter Merton Clivette (1868-1931). For more information about the artist and available works, visit clivette.com.