Artist Claude Emile Schuffenecker is better known today as an early patron and friend of Gauguin, whom he met c. 1872 when both were stockbrokers in Paris. Schuffenecker began to collect in the 1880s, not only works by Gauguin but those by van Gogh, Bernard, and Redon, and was known by his artist friends as "le bon Schuff" for his support. The friendship with Gauguin ended in around 1891, when Gauguin left for Tahiti. An acrimonious divorce, which was finalized in 1904, forced Claude Emile to sell his collection to his brother Amédée in hopes of keeping it together. Instead, Amédée became an active dealer. Both brothers were posthumously implicated in the scandal of fake van Goghs handled by Amédée.
Artist Bibliography
1936
Boudot-Lamotte, Maurice. "Le peintre et collectionneur Claude-Emile Schuffenecker." L'Amour de l'Art 17 (October 1936): 284.
1978
Monneret, Sophie, L'Impressionnisme et son Époque 4 vols. Paris, 1978-1981:II: 231-233.
1980
Claude-Emile Schuffenecker 1851-1934. Exh. cat. University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Binghamton; Hammer Galleries, 1980.
2003
Meedendorp, Teio. "The Schuffenecker brothers and the Prince of Wagram," in The paintings of Vincent van Gogh in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 2003: 412-413.