Early Career
Petit was the son of François Petit, who founded the firm of art dealers at 7, rue St Georges in 1846. Within just a few years, the Galerie François Petit was among the most powerful firms in the French art market.
According to Robert Jensen in his book Marketing Modernism in Fin-de-Siecle Europe, the auction house assumed, "multiple roles that ran the gamut from certifying the authenticity of the object, to guiding it through the hazards of the marketplace, to establishing its provenance and enlisting critics and historians to situate the artist's importance."
Georges Petit inherited the firm, as well as a château and 3 million francs in 1877. He constructed a town house on the rue de Seze. His annual expenses amounted to some 400,000 francs. That's what he spent to support his wife, children, mistress... and shooting expenses.
Jensen quotes Emile Zola as saying that the younger Petit was "more ambitious than his father… competitive to the point of wanting to ruin his rivals". Jensen continues, " would wait… for the Americans to arrive in Paris every May. And what he bought for 10,000 francs, he sold for 40,000."
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