Germain Seligman was a successful art dealer, collector, and art historian. From 1924, Seligman headed the Paris and New York offices of Jacques Seligmann & Cie., a prominent art dealership. Originally named Germain Seligmann with two Ns, he dropped one of them in 1943 when he obtained United States citizenship.

Beginnings

The son of Jacques Seligmann

Jacques Seligmann

Jacques Seligmann was a highly successful antiquarian and art dealer with businesses in both Paris and New York...

, a German-born French and American antiquarian and art dealer, Seligman was raised in Paris in the luxurious Hôtel de Monaco. He showed an early interest in art and often visited the company's galleries together with his father who introduced him to the art trade. He frequently joined his father on business trips including a one to St. Petersburg in 1910 in connection with the acquisition of the Swenigorodskoi enamels.

Seligman joined the French army immediately after the outbreak of the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in 1914 where he served first in the 132nd Infantry Regiment of Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 and, from 1916, in the 24th Infantry Brigade where he was promoted to captain. In 1917, he acted as liaison officer to the First Division of the American Expeditionary Forces where he served as translator for George C. Marshall.

Moving company priorities to modern art

In 1920, after being discharged at the end of the war, Seligman became a partner in his father's company. As a result, the name was changed to Jacques Seligmann et Fils. He became president of the New York office where he concentrated fully on art rather than the antiquarian market in which his father had first been interested. In 1923, on the death of his father, he became president of both the Paris and New York interests, changing the name back to Jacques Seligmann & Cie.

Seligman developed a strong interest in modern art for the New York gallery, dealing in works by Pierre Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...

, Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...

, Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....

, Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

, Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...

, and Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

 but in the face of resistance from other members of the family turned to César Mange de Hauke who had studied art in England and France and arrived in the United States in 1926. For a short period de Hauke worked as a sales representative for Seligman but the two soon decided to set up a subsidiary, de Hauke & Co., Inc., to deal in modern art. Established in 1926, the company purchased art in Paris and London for sales in the United States. Works by Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...

, Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon

Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.-Life:...

, Ker-Xavier Roussel

Ker-Xavier Roussel

Ker-Xavier Roussel was a French painter associated with Les Nabis.Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; alongside his friend Édouard Vuillard, he also studied at the studio of painter Diogène Maillart...

 and Edouard Vuillard

Édouard Vuillard

Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...

 were exhibited and sold in New York. Soon coverage was extended to Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...

, Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

, Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...

, Jean Ingres, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

, and Georges Seurat. Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

 was featured twice, first in 1936 with paintings from the Blue Period

Blue Period

The Blue Period is a term used to define to the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1901 and 1904, when he painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors...

 and the Rose Period

Rose Period

The Rose Period signifies the time when the style of Pablo Picasso's painting used cheerful orange and pink colours in contrast to the cool, somber tones of the previous Blue Period. It lasted from 1904 to 1906. Picasso was happy in his relationship with Fernande Olivier whom he had met in 1904 and...

, and second in the November 1937 exhibition Twenty Years in the Evolution of Picasso showcasing the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

He followed his success by developing into his Rose period from 1904 to 1907, which introduced a strong element of sensuality and sexuality into his work...

which Seligman had acquired from the Jacques Doucet

Jacques Doucet (fashion designer)

Jacques Doucet was a French fashion designer, known for his elegant dresses, made with flimsy translucent materials in superimposing pastel colors....

 estate. The Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 acquired the painting for $24,000 raising $18,000 toward the purchase price by selling a Degas

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

 painting and obtaining the remainder from donations by the co-owners of the gallery Germain Seligman and Cesar de Hauke. As a result of the successful new business strategy, the other family members withdrew their opposition and Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc. adopted Seligman's evolving preferences. De Hauke's company was dissolved and de Hauke returned to Paris. Seligman was a member of committee coordinating art for the New York World Fair

1939 New York World's Fair

The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

 in 1939.

Nazi looting

In the late 1930s, the Paris office came under increasing pressure as a result of political developments. Many of the assets were taken over by the Vichy government and sold at public auction. The archives were burnt by company staff to prevent confiscation by the Nazis. Seligman moved the company headquarters to New York.

After the war, Seligman's efforts were concentratred on recovering artworks looted by the Nazis. There was a general family reconciliation with all working towards the interests of the company. In 1951, the Duc d'Arenberg commissioned the company to sell an important collection of illuminated manuscripts and other artworks.

Closure of the company

On Seligman's death in 1978, the company closed. There was recognition of the leading part he and his father had playing in developing interest in art in the United States. Those who benefitted from the company's activites included a number of art collectors as well as art museums and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

, the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in New York and the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...

.

Seligman's written works

Seligman began writing in the 1940s, publishing a monograph on Roger de La Fresnaye

Roger de La Fresnaye

Roger de La Fresnaye was a French cubist painter.-Early years and education:La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were an aristocratic family whose ancestral home, the Château de La Fresnaye, is in Falaise...

 in 1945 and one on The Drawings of Georges Seurat in 1947. His "Oh! Fickle Taste; or, Objectivity in Art" (1952) he traced the social changes influencing trends in American art collection. His "Merchants of Art, 1880-1960: Eighty Years of Professional Collecting" (1961) described the development of his father's business while "Roger de La Fresnaye" with a Catalogue Raisonné (1969) was included in the New York Times list of the best ten books of the year.

Awards

• Croix de Guerre
  Croix de guerre
  The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
  
  , 1919
• Legion of Honour, 1938
• Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
  Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
  The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United...
  
  for his service during the First World War