Looking back after collecting for many years, I realize that some wonderful paintings have been passed up. I suppose if I had had the money at the time these paintings were for sale I would have had a much larger collection of masterpieces. I lost one great Cézanne because the dealer had asked a sum of money which I didn’t readily have; I didn’t know at the time that if I had given him twenty-five percent of the asking price, he would have held the painting for thirty or sixty days to give me the opportunity to come up with the balance. On another occasion a great still life was offered to me, but since it was always a tug-of-war to get a painting from this dealer, and I had planned on going to Europe two days later, I passed up this great painting.

As I look back, there were paintings that I passed up because I just didn’t have the money to purchase them. It’s not that I am anything but happy and satisfied with what I have; but while I knew the artistic and monetary values of the objects that were offered me, I had to either turn them down or get into heavy debt. I chose the former option. It was never for lack of excitement.

Henry Pearlman

(b. 1895, Brooklyn, NY; d. 1974, New York, NY)