ART DEALERS, DISAPPEARED

See Also: ART DEALERS; GALLERIES Dulwich Picture Gallery; GROOVY BOB; MENTAL HEALTH Senility

The Duveens

Joseph Duveen was a Dutchman who opened a curiosity shop in Hull. In 1878 he moved his business to London. His first premises in the city were on Oxford Street. Subsequently, he relocated it to Old Bond Street. His initial speciality was in oriental china¹ but he developed further expertise in English and French furniture. He focused on selling his wares to rich Americans and South Africans.

In 1899 Duveen provided The Tate Gallery with a sculpture hall. Eleven years later he furnished the institution with another exhibition space to enable it to display items from the Turner Bequest. His generosity and eminence were acknowledged with a knighthood.

Sir Joseph was followed in his business by his sons Joe and Henry. The brothers established a partnership in 1890. Joe was even more successful that his father had been, ending up as Lord Duveen, a peer of the realm. His money came from selling European art to American millionaires. He became closely associated with the United States-born, Italian-resident art historian Bernard Berenson, who had revived the artistic reputations of Botticelli and Piero della Francesca. The dealer gave the scholar a quarter of the profits on the works that he authenticated .²

Like his father, Joe used his wealth to build galleries for a number of British art institutions. In 1926 he provided the Tate with two new galleries, one for sculpture and the other for paintings. The latter was designed to display paintings by the American artist John Singer Sargent. Seven years later Joe provided the National Portrait Gallery with an extension. In 1938 he gave the British Museum a hall in which it could display its Greek sculptures.

Location: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG (blue, yellow)

The National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN (red, yellow)

Tate Britain, 52 Millbank, SW1P 4RG (blue, red)

See Also: ART DEALERS Gimpel fils; GALLERIES Tate Britain; MUSEUMS The Rangers House Greenwich Park; PHILANTHROPY

Website: http://itatti.harvard.edu (Berenson's former home near Florence)

¹. The Metropolitan Museum of New York's Garland Collection was largely his creation if not his property.

². Within their interactions, Berenson's codename was Doris.

³. Further Reading: John Brewer The American Leonardo: A Tale of 20^th Century Obsession, Art and Money Constable (2009). Following the Great War, Harry J. Hahn, a car mechanic, tried to sell a painting in Kansas that he claimed was by da Vinci. Without having seen the work, Joe Duveen declared it to be a fake. The sale collapsed and Hahn sued Duveen.

Guggenheim Jeune

The American heiress Peggy Guggenheim had a taste for Old Masters. In 1937 she met Samuel Beckett, who became her lover. At his prompting, she switched to focussing on living artists. The following year she opened to Guggenheim Jeune gallery.

Hanover Gallery

The Hanover Gallery was one of the livelier galleries in the early 1950s. The critic David Sylvester arranged for the gallery to show work by William Turnbull (1922-2012) and Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005).

It closed in 1973.

Location: 1 Harewood Place, W1S 1BU (blue, pink)

Indica Gallery

The Indica Gallery was one the hubs of Experimental Art in London during the late 1960s. Paul McCartney, the most avant garde of The Beatles, was associated with it.

John Dunbar and Peter Asher had come to know one another during their late teens. The former studied at the University of Cambridge and married Marianne Faithfull. He worked for The Scotsman newspaper as one of its London reviewers. In 1965 he and Barry Miles attended the Poetry Olympics event, which was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Dunbar set to wondering that if poetry could cause an occasion that 7000 people would attend, what scope might there be for enlivening London's art scene. It was agreed that Dunbar would run a gallery, while Miles would manage an associated bookshop. Asher provided 2100 capital. Of this, he lent Dunbar 700 and Miles 700, so that they were each able to invest the same amount in the business. The Indica name was derived from the botanical name Cannabis indica.

In 1966 the Indica Bookshop & Gallery staged an exhibition of Yoko Ono's art that Robert Fraser had sponsored. It was at this that she and John Lennon met one another for the first time. One of the exhibits was an instruction painting that consisted of a blank canvas next to a hammer and a jar of nails. The Beatle asked if he could be the first person to put a nail in. She replied that he could if he paid five shillings. He responded by wondering whether he could bang in an imaginary nail in return for an imaginary five shillings. The encounter made it clear to them both that they had a rapport.

The underground newspaper International Times was initially housed in the Gallery's basement.

The bookshop separated itself from the gallery and moved to No. 102 Southampton Row. Following its eventual closure, some of its staff were to go on to found the Compendium bookshop in late 1968.

The Gallery closed in late 1967.

Location: 6 Mason's Yard, SW1Y 6BU (purple, pink)

102 Southampton Row, WC1B 4BL (red, orange)

See Also: THE BEATLES; BOOKSHOPS, DISAPPEARED Compendium; POP & ROCK The Technicolor Dream

Website: http://barrymiles/photo-library/indica-gallery

Kasmin

In 1959 John Kasmin was hired by Marlborough to manage a contemporary art business. He acquired an admiration for David Hockney's work. He tried to persuade it to represent the artist. The suggestion was declined. In 1963 he opened his own gallery with backing from the 5^th Marquis of Dufferin & Ava. The artists he represented included (Edward) Robyn Denny (1930-2014) and Anthony Caro (1924-2013). The peer tired of the business. In 1972 the gallery closed.

Location: 118 New Bond Street, W1S 1EP (orange, yellow)

King Street

In the mid-18^thC King Street was a centre of the fine art trade. The street is now known for its auction houses. Occasionally, these resell some of their predecessors wares.

Location: King Street, SW1Y 6QY (purple, turquoise)

Anthony d'Offay Gallery

Anthony d'Offay was born in Sheffield. His mother was an antique dealer. While he was a student at Edinburgh University, he received 260 compensation for a swimming-pool accident that he had suffered. He used the money to buy the papers of two obscure fin-de-siecle poets. He spent a summer vacation meticulously cataloguing these and then sold them for a profit.

In 1965 d'Offlay opened his first gallery in Vigo Street, Piccadilly. Initially, he traded manuscripts and drawings. He then expanded into Japanese prints and Symbolist paintings, and then on into early 20thC British art, thereby helping to resurrect the reputations of the likes of Vanessa Bell, Jacob Epstein, Duncan Grant, and John Wyndham Lewis. In 1969 he launched his Dering Street gallery with the exhibition Abstract Art In England, 1905-15.

During the 1970s he started representing living British artists such as Michael Andrews, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, and Eduardo Paolozzi. He also started to attract international artists and went on to represent Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol.

In 1977 d'Offay married Anne Seymour, then assistant keeper of Modern Art at the Tate Gallery, as his second wife. Through her influence he was drawn to the avant-garde. In 1980 he opened a second gallery in Dering Street that he devoted to new art. The following year he contributed works to the Royal Academy's New Spirit of Painting exhibition. In 1985 d Offlay concluded that Andy Warhol was the leading portrait artist of the second half of the 20^thC. He went on to mount an exhibition of the artist's portraiture that led to a reassessment of the man's reputation.

In 2000 it was reported that the artists Gilbert and George had dismissed the Anthony D'Offay Gallery as their dealer. The gallery had represented the two men for over twenty years.

In 2001 Anthony d'Offay announced his retirement and closed his gallery.

In 2008 it was reported that d Offlay was giving 725 works of art to The Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. The collection was estimated to be worth 125m for which he was to be paid 26.5m.

Location: 23 Dering Street, W1S 1BL (blue, brown)

The Pre-Raphaelite Revival

During the 1950s and early 1960s the Pre-Raphaelites were deeply unfashionable. Major works sold for tokenistic prices. The Tate displayed a few of the school s works in a small basement room that was located next to its public lavatories.

In 1961 Jeremy Maas (1928-1997) opened a gallery in Clifford Street off Bond Street with the specific intention of reviving the Pre-Raphaelites reputation. His cause was taken up by Peter Nahum at Sotheby's Belgravia and Christopher Wood (1941-2009) at Christies. The Roy Miles Gallery aided it as well.

In 1968 Christie's held its first sale of Victorian works; previously works had been sold as part of general auctions. The sale was held to have been a success. In 1976 Wood left the firm but continued to be active as a dealer and art historian. In 2007 Christie's auctioned Wood's collection in a sale that was entitled A Very Victorian Eye.

Location: 15a Clifford Street, W1S 4JZ (orange, brown)

David Backhouse 2024