Theodore William Schempp (1904–1988) was an American artist and art dealer. He dealt in pre-Columbian art, and modernist works.[1] He sold to other dealers, institutions and collectors, and collected art in his own right.
Early life
He was the second son of William Frederick Schempp and his wife Della Karstetter of Brodhead, Wisconsin, born February 10, 1904. His father edited the local newspaper there; and died in 1929.[2][3]
Schempp attended Brodhead High School, and went on to Oberlin College, where he studied the piano. He graduated B.A. in 1926. He took the Conservatory music course there, to 1927, for the Mus.B. degree.[3][2][4] He then moved to Paris, continuing his piano studies under Alfred Cortot.[4] He also painted.[5]
In 1937, Schempp abandoned his career in music, and concentrated on dealing in art.[4] He sold two modernist painting at the beginning of the year to Walter Arensberg and his wife Louise.[1] That year also, he sold a 1925 work by Marcel Duchamp to Earl Stendahl.[9]
Georges Braque lived in the same area of Paris, with a studio on rue du Douanier; and he and Schempp became friends.[5][10] Schempp sold a Braque still life from 1943 to Toledo Museum of Art, around 1950.[11]
Having spent years out of France, Schempp returned soon after the end of World War II.[5] In 1946 Nicolas de Staël took a studio at 7 rue Gauguet, and associated with Braque. At this point he was selling in Paris through Louis Carré. Schempp met de Staël in 1947, and, from about 1950, was his dealer in the United States, selling his works in particular to collectors in the Mid West.[16][17]
^Staël, Nicolas de; Ameline, Jean-Paul; Pompidou, Centre Georges; Hiddleston, Anna; Pompidou, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges (2003). Nicolas de Staël: ouvrage publié à l'occasion de l'exposition présentée au Centre Pompidou, Galerie 1, du 12 mars au 30 juin 2003 (in French). Centre Pompidou. p. 238. ISBN978-2-84426-158-8.