One of London’s Oldest Commercial Art Gallery To Offer Over 300 Works at Sotheby’s In an Auction to Celebrate their History on New Bond Street

LONDON 10 December 2018 - After 142 years on New Bond Street, one of London’s oldest commercial art gallery, The Fine Art Society relocated from their iconic Mayfair space earlier this year. To mark this new chapter, they are to offer over 300 works in an auction at Sotheby’s in February. Since its foundation in 1876, The Fine Art Society has championed living artists, either bringing their work to the public’s attention for the first time, or presenting it in unexpected ways. Such has been the impact of this historic institution on the evolution of the art market, that its story is in many ways also that of Bond Street, and of the wider London art world.

The sale in February 2019 will include pieces by some of the most prominent artists of the last 150 years. From James McNeil Whistler, whose ideas influenced not only the art world but also the broader culture of the late 19th-century, to the ‘godfather’ of British Pop Art, Sir Peter Blake, luminary artists whose histories are entwined with that of the Society will help tell the extraordinary story of this London institution.

When The Fine Art Society’s founders signed the lease on ‘a fancy goods shop’ at number 148 New Bond Street in 1876, they were the first gallerists to set up in an area which has now become the centre of London’s art world (Sotheby’s moved in across the road in 1917). When they commissioned the progressive English architect-designer E.W. Godwin to redesign the this five-story Mayfair townhouse in 1881, they became the first gallery to commission a purpose built gallery space. In the same year, when they launched major shows of Samuel Palmer and John Everett Millais, they became pioneers of the ‘one-man exhibition’. And when in 1883 they allowed Whistler to hang his Venetian etchings (a project commissioned by the gallery), in a continuous line, single-hung, on white felt walls, this was the start of our modern concept of how exhibitions and art galleries should look.

The Fine Art Society Chair, Annamarie Phelps CBE, said: “This sale is a celebration of The Fine Art Society’s contribution to the British art world since the Victorian era, when our shows shocked, delighted and occasionally scandalised audiences. The artworks we have selected are those which are most representative of our time on New Bond Street, and illustrate some of our long-forgotten stories. We have always been a contemporary art gallery and we have always looked forward. In this spirit, after nearly 150 years on New Bond Street, the time has come to find a new location for The Fine Art Society where we can continue to develop our artistic programme for the next 150 years. The sale marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of an exciting new one.”

Harry Dalmeny, Sotheby’s UK Chairman, said: "Throughout their history, The Fine Art Society has always embraced what is cutting edge and new, whilst never afraid of being a little unconventional and recherché at the same time. The radical approach of this New Bond Street gallery in the Victorian era provided the prototype for the modern 'white cube' art spaces we see across the world today. Now, this sale offers collectors the chance to buy their own piece of the history of this venerable London institution.

A look inside the collection...

James McNeil WhistlerOf all the artists with which the Society is most associated with, none are more significant than James McNeil Whistler, one of the first and most illustrious artists to show in the galleries. His exhibitions at The Fine Art Society in the early 1880s caused shockwaves, not least his 1883 show ‘Arrangement in Yellow’, which saw the gallery transformed with yellow mouldings, skirting boards, carpet, fireplace, and yellow livery for staff. His displays were to impact exhibition design so dramatically that their influence is still seen on curators today. The sale will include eleven prints by the artist, including Whistler’s The Rialto (est. £7,000 – 10,000). In the late 1870s, Whistler found himself bankrupted after pursing an expensive (but successful) lawsuit against critic and fellow artist, John Ruskin, who had accused the artist of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face’. The Fine Art Society sponsored the artist’s trip to Venice in 1879, and over fourteen months he produced 50 etchings, including this view of the bustling Rialto bridge captured from a first floor window about the Sottoportico Pirieta, later unveiled at The Fine Art Society. Whistler’s approach to printmaking was unprecedented. At the time, prints were predominantly used as a means of reproducing painting, but he transformed it into a medium in its own right and made market history being the first artist to produce etchings in signed, limited editions.

Sir Peter BlakeOne of Britain’s best-known and best-loved artists, Blake created The Fine Art Society’s iconic flag, which in recent years has years hung above the doors of the Bond Street gallery. Balancing a Pop Art aesthetic with a more poetic sensibility, Blake’s work centres around nostalgia and the uniqueness of British culture – an aesthetic perhaps most famously expressed in his photo-montage for the cover of The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Commissioned in 2013, The Fine Art Society flag is a perfect expression of Blake’s art in typographic form - colourful and joyous, both undeniably contemporary yet also an homage to a bygone era.

GluckPainter, bohemian and social pioneer, Gluck, was one of the most interesting artists of the early 20th century. Born Hannah Gluckstein she pursued artistic training, to the exasperation of her well-to-do family, and later used her trust fund to join an artist’s colony Lamorna, West Cornwall. By the age of 23, she had begun to call herself Gluck, wearing men’s clothing, cropping her hair, smoking a pipe and adopting an androgynous style. Howard Coster’s classic photograph, perhaps the definitive image of the artist alongside the self-portrait that recently lead the Tate’s exhibition Queer British Art 1861 – 1967, shows Gluck in all her glory: hair cropped short, dressed in an unashamedly masculine work coat, exuding total confidence in who she was. A strikingly modern image of a strikingly modern woman, this image belies the fact that was created over 70 years ago. In 1973, The Fine Art Society exhibited a solo show of 52 pieces of her work – the first since 1937, and the last before her death in 1978. The gallery also held a retrospective of Gluck’s work in 2017 in conjunction with two other exhibitions looking at work by women artists.

Sir George FramptonOne of the most highly regarded sculptors of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, Frampton’s most famous work is undoubtedly his statue of J.M. Barrie’s beloved literary character, Peter Pan, which to this day remains a favourite feature of Kensington Gardens in London. Offered in the sale will be one of an edition of eight full-scale versions of the cast commissioned by The Fine Art Society from the artist’s estate in in 1987.

FurnitureUnafraid to break new ground, The Fine Art Society’s pioneering ethos was matched by a revolutionary aesthetic, with its Bond Street galleries furnished with custom made ‘office furniture’. Far removed from what was readily available at the time, the furniture was specifically to complement the works of art on view. Amongst pieces of the original furniture in the sale there is a special mahogany table designed for displaying works on paper by George Faulkner Armitage - redolent of the bohemian era from which it comes.