Guillaume Jean Constantin

Published by Ad Ilissvm for the Fondation Custodia this extraordinary and original study traces the career of the influential Paris art dealer Guillaume Jean Constantin (1755-1816). Using Constantin's dealer's mark and a wealth of unpublished archival material, Joachim Jacoby reconstructs Constantin's hitherto unknown business activities and rediscovers an early and important instance of a bourgeois art dealer. In the course of the 18th century, drawings by old and contemporary masters became an esteemed collectors item and, in consequence, a highly valued commodity of the art market. This study looks at this business from the perspective of the art dealer Guillaume Jean Constantin (1755-1816), who was active in Paris during the last quarter of the 18th and the first years of the 19th century. This handsomely produced book is published by Ad Ilissvm in a new series, 'The Fondation Custodia Studies in the History of Art', which reflects and continues forward into the present the scholarly interests of the institution's founder, Frits Lugt.