The seascape painter, Charles Louis Mozin, introduced Rittner to the young Jean-Baptiste Adolphe Goupil, who was descended from the celebrated family of painters, the Drouais. They create together the maison Goupil in 1829. The business is to print and sell prints in bvd. Montmartre in Paris. From the outset the house specialised in the sale of engravings after pictures by Ingres, Hippolyte Delaroche and Léopold Robert. After Rittner's death, Goupil formed a partnership with Théodore Vibert, which was formalized in Paris in 1842. In a ground-breaking move, the firm opened in New York in 1848 as Goupil, Vibert et cie. William Schaus became the first director of the New York branch, but was replaced by Adolphe Goupil's son, Léon, and then in 1855 by Michel Knoedler, who eventually bought out Goupil's interest in 1857. Adolphe Goupil formed Goupil & Cie in 1850. Over the next 34 years the partners were Adolphe Goupil 1850–84, Alfred Mainguet 1850–56, Léon Goupil 1854–55, Léon Boussod 1856–84, Vincent van Gogh 1861–72, Albert Goupil 1872–84, René Valadon 1878–84. Until 1861 the firm concentrated on buying, selling and editing prints. To feed an emerging middle-class market for inexpensive art, Goupil's factory outside Paris employed skilled craftsmen to produce engraved, etched, photographic and even sculptural copies of paintings in vast quantities. Goupil's reproductions made Jean-Léon Gérôme, in particular, a well known artist. Maison Goupil also promoted via their print reproductions, a significant number of works by Italian painters who worked for the publishing house during the 1870s, including paintings by Alberto Pasini and Francesco Paolo Michetti among others. When Vincent van Gogh , the uncle of painter Vincent van Gogh, known as Uncle Cent by Vincent and his brother Theo, entered the firm, the business was expanded to paintings and drawings, finally in 1872 to industrial images, including photographic and héliographic procedures. Vincent van Gogh fell ill and retired in 1872, but remained a partner until 1878. His duties were taken over by René Valadon. From then on the firm was completely in the hands of the Goupil family and their sons-in-law Léon Boussod and René Valadon. In 1884 Adolphe Goupil retired and the firm was again transformed and renamed Boussod, Valadon & Cie, successeurs de Goupil & Cie. Three years later, 25–27 May 1887, the stock of the gallery was sold at auction, "caused by the renewal of the ancient firm Goupil & Cie".
Headquarters and branches
Paris
Paris
Paris
New York
The Hague
Brussels
London
Berlin
Manzi & Joyant
Manzi, an old friend of Degas as well as a highly skilled printer, and Maurice Joyant, originally Theo van Gogh's successor at 19 Boulevard Montmartre, joined forces, when Boussod & Valadon gave up their business.
"Uncle Cent", as he was called by his nephews, moved to Paris in 1858 and took residence at 9 Rue Chaptal, which housed Goupil's headquarters, too. In 1861, he became partner of Goupil & Cie, but retired in 1872, due to his degrading health, to settle in Princenhage for the summers and in Menton for the winters. Six years later, he withdrew his shares. As Uncle Cent had no children, his nephews were evidently supposed to follow him up in the firm: Vincent entered in 1869, Theo in 1873. When Vincent was sacked by Léon Boussod in 1876, the balance between the shareholders suffered - and so Theo got his chance. Called to the Paris office for the time of the World Fair 1878, he was offered to stay in Paris. Between 1881 and 1890, Theo was manager of Goupil & Cie's branch on Boulevard Montmartre, from which he sold about 1,000 paintings, including works by members of the Barbizon School like Corot and Daubigny. In these years, Vincent took up his vocation and began to study art, based on the Cours de dessin, compiled by Charles Bargue "in collaboration with J.-L. Gérôme" and edited by Goupil & Cie, 1868–1873. In 1880, he asked his former director Herman Gijsbert Tersteeg, at Goupil's in The Hague, to lend him a copy, which he finally received with the support of his brother Theo.
