Samuel Bing
Encyclopedia
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...
who lived in Paris as an adult, and who helped introduce Japanese art
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
and artworks to the West and was a factor in the development of the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style during the late nineteenth century.
Biography
Bing was born in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, a member of a large family with diverse commercial interests. He relocated to France during 1854, to help manage the ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s manufacturing business of Bing family in-laws, and resided in France for the remainder of his life. He became a naturalized French citizen during 1876. Bing married a second cousin, Johanna Baer, during July 1868. Their son Marcel Bing eventually became a business associate of his father's, as well as a jewelry designer of Art Nouveau style.
During 1873, on the death of his elder brother Michael, Siegfried Bing became the owner of Bing family enterprises in France. Bing developed a flourishing import-export business from the 1870s onward, working through several commercial entities with various partners and family members; he concentrated on the importation and sale of Japanese and other Asian objets d'art, though his business also exported French goods to Japan, working through a Yokohama office managed by his younger brother August. During December 1895 he opened his famous gallery, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau
Maison de l'Art Nouveau
The Maison de l'Art Nouveau , abbreviated often as L'Art Nouveau, and known also as Maison Bing for the owner, was a gallery opened on on 26 December 1895, by Siegfried Bing at 22 rue de Provence, Paris....
, which showed works of artists of what would become known as the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style. Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
designed the interior of the gallery, while Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
supplied stained glass. Bing's gallery featured entire rooms designed in the Art Nouveau style by his in-house designers.
During the gallery's most successful period, 1896–1902, Bing vended a great variety of artistic work, included fabrics designed by William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, glassware by Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
, jewelry, paintings, ceramics, stained glass, and furniture of Art Nouveau style. Bing dealt with customers ranging from private collectors to major museums, and helped to promote a global art market. His pavilion at the 1900 Paris World's Fair was especially notable. By this time Bing was the primary European dealer for the Rookwood Pottery Co. of Cincinnati and the Grueby Faience Company
Grueby Faience Company
The Grueby Faience Company, founded in 1894, was an American ceramics company that produced distinctive vases and tiles during America's Arts and Crafts Movement....
of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, as well as the wares of Tiffany.
Bing advanced the careers of a wide range of artists, including Louis Bonnier, Frank Brangwyn
Frank Brangwyn
Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...
, and Edouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
, the designers Eugène Gaillard
Eugène Gaillard
Eugène Gaillard was a French art nouveau industrial designer, architect and advocate of modern design. Gaillard abandoned a career in law for that of interior design and decoration. He was employed for some time by Siegfried Bing along with Georges de Feure and Edouard Colonna to work on his...
, Edward Colonna, William Benson
William Benson
William Benson was a talented amateur architect and an ambitious and self-serving Whig place-holder in the government of George I...
, and Georges de Feure
Georges de Feure
Georges de Feure was a French painter, theatrical designer, and industrial art designer in the symbolism and Art Nouveau styles....
, and the sculptor Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...
. Bing closed his gallery during 1904, a year before his death, when the fashion for Art Nouveau was already beginning to decrease.
Bing's activities were important, perhaps crucial, to the Japanese influence on Art Nouveau. He published a
monthly journal, Le Japon Artistique, which began during 1888 and was collected in three volumes during 1891. The journal influenced people like Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
.
Siegfried Bing has often been mis-named Samuel, perhaps in confusion with his brother, Samuel Otto Bing (1850–1905). (Siegfried consistently signed his name "S. Bing," facilitating the confusion.) Although Elias Bing, the American Biological Art Metal
Biological art metal
Biological art metal is a name given to a new movement in the art metal field whereby biological forms serve as the artist's models. An emphasis is placed on exactly replicating nature as is the case, for example, in scientific illustration. Biological art metal may be used as sculpture,...
artist, produces Art-Nouveau inspired jewelry, there is not any family relationship.