Robert René Meyer-Sée

"The New Terror". Cartoon by Charles Harrison lambasting Futurist art. Daily Express, 4 March 1912.

Gino Severini, Abstract rhythm of Mrs. M.S. (Ritmo astratto di Madame M.S.), 1915. Oil on canvas. Robert René Meyer-Sée (1884 – after 1947) was a French art dealer and critic who was instrumental in organising the exhibition of Futurist painting at The Sackville Gallery in London in 1912. He ran the Marlborough Gallery where he organised an exhibition by the Italian Futurist Gino Severini, and was involved in a court case with an implication of fraud. Later, he moved to the United States.

Early life and family Meyer-Sée was born in Dijon, France, in 1884, the son of a viticulturist He was educated at the Condorcet Lycee and the École des Hautes Études Sociales et Commerciales in Paris. In 1905 he married Grace Mercia Sibley. At the time of his marriage, Meyer-Sée was described as a "motor salesman".

In August 1912, Meyer-Sée left The Sackville Gallery to run Rothschild's Marlborough Gallery at 34 Duke Street, London, along with his wife and Sam H. Nyburg. In April 1913 he organised an exhibition there by Gino Severini, one of the Futurists who had taken part in the 1912 exhibition. Severini lived with Meyer-Sée and his wife during the exhibition but there was tension over money and the titles given to the paintings. Severini wrote, "Sée is a pig and he is screwing me but I need him". Despite organising two exhibitions featuring Futurist art, Meyer-Sée was principally a dealer in old master paintings and not sympathetic to the Futurist aesthetic. Severini wrote to Filippo Marinetti, "I have to sustain our moral cause energetically since our friend Sée openly says he doesn’t give a damn."

According to Barbara Pezzini, a possible source of tension in the Meyer-Sée household was Gino Severini's interest in Grace Meyer-Sée, who may have been the blonde woman that he had "almost decided to fall in love with" in 1911.

Stolen pictures Meyer-Sée served as an officer in the French army during the First World War.

According to police investigations, there was a thick coating of dust on the window sill and on the glass roof to the gallery, indicating that entry had not been obtained to the property that way. It was suggested that someone might have concealed themselves in the building. Asked if she had been party to a fraud, Mrs Meyer-Sée replied that she wouldn't hurt a mouse, much less commit a fraud.

Writing Until 1913, Meyer-Sée was the Paris correspondent for American Art News. Among the other journals he wrote for are Revue Artistique, The Connoisseur, Le Courrier graphique, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Les Arts and Gil Blas. His last writings appear to be in the 1940s but his date of death is unknown.

Selected publications English Pastels 1750–1830. G. Bell & Sons, London, 1911. Masquerier and his Circle. The Connoisseur, London, 1922.