Chapter 1 : Gustave Sennelier

One morning, in April 1887, Gustave Sennelier, who lives on the Quai des Grands-Augustins, takes, as he does each morning, the horse-drawn carriage along the banks of the Seine. Like every day, he passes in front of the shop, selling color pigments, of Joseph Léon Prévost. “He is struck with emotion when, one morning in April 1887, he discovers a ‘for rent’ sign in front of the art store on the quai Voltaire”. A deal is quickly agreed and the transfer of the lease is endorsed in the Paris records. “A little time later M. Prévost, just before he is declared bankrupt, sells all the stock and equipment to M. Sennelier”.

Gustave, son of Nicolas and Anne-Marie Pierrése, was born in 1865 at Saint-Mandé. His father was a baker. He was also a musician and, each Sunday, would join his friends in the taverns on the banks of the Marne to play the violin. Gustave hardly had the time to appreciate his father. He was only 10, when he died. Anne-Marie Sennelier is now alone in managing the family and by the age of 16, Gustave has to give up his studies and go out to work. Well behaved, a skilled draughtsman, precise, organized, Gustave Sennelier quickly nds employment in the chemical industry where he illustrates catalogs. Fascinated by formulas ever since he was an adolescent, the young Gustave takes courses during the evening at the Conservatoire des arts et métiers. With the purchase of Joseph Leon Prévost’s store on Quai Voltaire, he can pursue his dream of manufacturing and selling pigments and colors, and open his own art store.

But what are color merchants? In a thesis pu- blished in 2004 on “The Sellers of Color during the 19th century,” historian Clotilde Roth-Meyer explains that these merchants were, until the French Revolution, part of the drug store trade “who have the right to sell, wholesale and retail, all the spices and simple drugs used in foods, drugs and art.” There were 79 of this type of shop in 1817, 270 in 1830, 600 in 1885. It was an opportune time to do it! Some merchants sold material to artists, some, like Sennelier, were also manufacturers.According to the P.Richard's Book