WILDENSTEIN

WILDENSTEIN, French family of art collectors, connoisseurs, and dealers. NATHAN (1851–1934) opened a small shop in the Rue Laffitte in Paris in 1890 and by the end of the century was considered one of the five most important art dealers in Paris. He opened a gallery in New York in 1903.   His son GEORGES (1892–1963), born in Paris, followed the family tradition, studied French art and joined his father in the business. In 1902 his catalog for the Fragonard exhibition at the Louvre became the model for all later catalogs. He wrote several biographies of French painters: Aved (1922), Louis Moreau (1923), a book on Lancret (1924), and one on Chardin (1933). He opened two more branches of the gallery in London and one in Buenos Aires. In 1941 he settled in the United States. Daniel Leopold (1917–2001), Georges' son, an art dealer, was born in France. He went to the United States in 1940 and from 1959 to 1962 was chairman of the board of Wildenstein and Company Inc., New York. He wrote articles on art for many magazines both in the United States and in France. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gazette des Beaux-Arts (July 1963), supplement.