The Gift of Love

Harlem made him an honorary citizen for his early defense of African primitive sculpture. Modigliani drew his portrait and inscribed it to "The New Pilot" of modern art. He discovered Soutine and, the story has it, once sold a hundred of his paintings in a single batch to the U.S. collector Albert Barnes. But as one of Paris's most successful art dealers, the late Paul Guillaume had one flaw: he would not part with what he loved best. For this the Louvre Museum expressed its heartfelt thanks last week, as it installed 145 paintings from the collection he had founded in its Orangerie pavilion.

As a poor 17-year-old student in Paris, Guillaume was enchanted by an African primitive statue in a laundry window. This led to a meeting with a fellow enthusiast, the poet and critic Apollinaire, who introduced him to the artists in Montparnasse, most of whom soon became his friends. Modigliani once swapped a painting for a cup of coffee.

Classic Nudes. In 1925, Guillaume married an industrialist's daughter named Juliette Lacaze, asked her to change her name to Domenica in celebration of the day--Sunday--on which they met. Together they formed a collection based on their strong convictions as to who was and who was not important. Their apartment was filled with Renoir but not Braque. Derain but not Leger, Matisse but not Chagall. All but one of their Picassos were "classic period" nudes.

After Guillaume's death in 1934, Domenica married Jean Walter, whose vast Zellidja lead and zinc mines in Morocco made him one of France's wealthiest men. He and Domenica fleshed out the collection with some record-breaking purchases that would have met Guillaume's standards.

End of the Affair. After Walter's death in 1957, the Louvre heard that the twice-widowed Mme. Walter was willing to give her collection to them, and curators turned handsprings to meet her every whim. When she suggested that the paintings looked best in warmer surroundings than a museum, the Louvre cheerfully erected a second floor inside the Orangerie to convey the intimacy of her elegant mansion.

The collection has not always had so tranquil a home. In 1959 l'affaire Lacaze broke, filling headlines for weeks with accusations between Domenica and her adopted son Paulo, who said that her brother, Jean Lacaze, president of the Walter mines, tried to murder him to grab his inheritance. In 1961 the case was dismissed on grounds of insufficient evidence. Even last week Domenica preferred obscurity, not attending the exhibition's formal opening. Said she: "These paintings were made by artists whom Paul Guillaume chose because he believed in their genius. They belong first of all to those who love them."

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