This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, drawings and subject files primarily relating to Vladimir Visson's years as exhibitions director of the Wildenstein Gallery. The extensive subject files concern the Hallmark Art Award and exhibitions Visson mounted for the Wildenstein Gallery including shows on Gauguin, Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. Also included are Visson's original manuscripts on Russian painters and autobiographical writings. There is correspondence from artists including Eugene Berman, Amédée Ozenfant and Eugene Speicher, and authors such as John Gunther, Paul van Zeeland and Louis Auchincloss.
Series organized in two subseries: Cataloged correpospondence and Arranged correspondence.
Series includes manuscripts by Andrei Tarkovskii and Vladimir Visson.
Subject files include material on the Hallmark Art Award and exhibitions Visson mounted for the Wildenstein Gallery including shows on Gauguin, Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh.
This collection is arranged in four series. Selected materials cataloged; remainder arranged.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vladimir Visson Papers, Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Gift of Lynn Visson (Vladimir Visson's daughter) 1988.
Papers: Source of acquisition--Visson, Lynn. Method of acquisition--gift; Date of acquisition--02/05/88. Accession number--B-88-9-14.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Papers Processed ejs D-B-Coll-14 04/--/88.
07/16/2020 PDF finding aid converted to EAD and AS record updated by KSD. Bio note written by Tanya Chebotarev.
Vladimir Visson (1904-1976), American art dealer and curator, was born Vladimir Akivison (Akivisson) in Kiev. His father was a shipping magnate who had made his fortune trading with Denmark and Germany. In 1919, the Akivisons family left Russia and after long journey via several European countries they finally settled down in Paris. Vladimir graduated from Russian gymnasium and studied art history in Sorbonne and politics and economics at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques.
In the early 1930s, he found a job as a film producer working with such stars as Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux.
He immigrated to the United States in the early 1940s and became an art dealer in New York. He legally changed his last name to Visson in 1946.
From 1942 until his retirement in 1974, Vladimir Visson was director of exhibitions for the Wildenstein Galleries in New York.
150 exhibitions he organized at Wildenstein's, especially those of the Impressionist and Post‐Impressionist painters, rivaled those of the major museums, and many of the catalogues he produced have become permanent works of reference.
He was a true cosmopolitan, spoke four languages and was admired by his colleagues, clients, and friends.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.