Georges Petit - The Galerie After Petit

The Galerie After Petit

After Petit's death, the Galerie Georges Petit was acquired by prominent art dealers/brothers Gaston and Josse Bernheim-Jeune (fr) and their partner Étienne Bignou. George Keller, who was establishing a relationship with Salvador Dalí at this time, became director in 1929.

Henri Matisse held at large retrospective at the Galerie in 1931, the largest exhibition of his works in France to that date.

In 1932, the Galerie hosted an important retrospective of the works of Pablo Picasso. Art historian Michael C. FitzGerald writes that, "displaying 225 paintings, seven sculptures, and six illustrated books, the exhibition was a blockbuster. Apart from sheer size, the show ranged across Picasso's career from 1900 to the early months of 1932."

FitzGerald opines, "the Galerie George Petit was a paradigm of the new relationships among dealers and collectors that formed in the early thirties." He continues, "although bearing an illustrious name in the history of modern art, the gallery was far from its origins when the Picasso restrospective hung."

The Galerie Georges Petit closed in 1933 and its assets were sold at auction.