Software developer becomes unlikely art dealer
Bill Chamberlain has spent 18 years restoring a large, long-lost masterpiece
OAKLAND >> Software developer Bill Chamberlain is not a trained art expert, yet he found himself on an unexpected 18-year odyssey to verify that an old painting was indeed a lost masterpiece.
In 2000, Chamberlain, of Oakland, was on a business trip in Sweden when a client introduced him to an artist, Uno Vallman, an art collector. After Vallman learned of Chamberlain’s world travels and connections with other artists, he asked the software developer to help him sell a sculpture, “The Wooden Box,” 1892-93, by Paul Gauguin.
After Chamberlain’s success selling the sculpture, Vallman asked for him to help authenticate and restore a roughly 6-by-9-foot creased and damaged painting, called “The Passion of Jesus Christ” and painted in the 1930s. Vallman believed the painting was created by French painter Emile Bernard, who was reportedly friends with Vincent van Gogh.
“The more I learned about who Emile Bernard was, I thought, ‘This guy’s interesting,’ ” Chamberlain said. “I got hooked on just trying to find out more about this guy.”
The painting disappeared during the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s and was eventually discovered by Morgan Gallery in Sweden. Vallman purchased it from the gallery in the early 1950s, saying he recognized it as a Bernard painting.
Chamberlain first found Bernard’s granddaughter in France, and she knew the painting was her grandfather’s based on his other works, which looked similar.
From there, he found an expert at the Louvre Museum in Paris to further authenticate it. After that, Bay Area restoration expert Aiqin Zhou took 2 1/2 years to smooth the creases and mitigate the damage done to the painting.
Chamberlain wanted to ensure the painting was authenticated as well as possible and all the damage was fixed, which is why the process took so long.
“The rediscovered work
is undoubtedly important, both as an example of Bernard’s ambitions and for the insights it offers into the evolution of 20th century religious painting,” said Neil McWilliam, art history professor at Duke University.
Though the process was lengthy and tiring, Chamberlain said, the reward of restoring the painting to what it once was and learning about Bernard’s history inspired him to take on the burden while working full time as a software developer.
“How many times does something happen like this?” he said, joking about a “tech geek” like himself having an opportunity like this. “It’s not just a painting; if it were just a painting, (I would) create a bunch of brochures, throw them out and see what sticks.”
In honor of the 150-year anniversary of Bernard’s birth, Chamberlain has boosted efforts to find the painting a permanent home, ideally in a museum. It currently resides at a secure storage unit in Paris.
McWilliam said the painting is outside the realm of “what most museums and collectors tend to think of when they consider 20th century art,” though it is “nonetheless a significant and interesting work.”
Chamberlain said it’s difficult to put a price on the
painting because of its large size, but other paintings by Bernard are listed on several auctioneer websites for prices ranging from $3,000 to $1.3 million.
Before the project, Chamberlain said, the art hanging in his Montclair home consisted
of “maybe a poster of the Yellow Submarine show by the Beatles or a Ferrari.”
Now, his white walls are covered with paintings, and his affinity for art has grown drastically.
In dedicating almost two decades of his life to this
project, Chamberlain’s most earnest hope is for the public to appreciate Bernard and his work.
“I would like people to know a lot about who Emile Bernard was,” he said. “I would like to see him get recognition.”
“The rediscovered work is undoubtedly important, both as an example of Bernard’s ambitions and for the insights it offers into the evolution of 20th century religious painting.” — Neil McWilliam, art history professor at Duke University