Jane, Lady Abdy (born Jane Noble) (24 May 1934 – 22 December 2015) was an English

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

and art dealer. She has been described as one of the most original and respected art dealers of her generation and opened British eyes to

19th-century French art 19th-century French art was made in France or by French citizens during the following political regimes: Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate (1799–1804) and Empire (1804–1814), the Restoration under Louis XVIII and Charles X (1814–1830), the July ...

. She is also credited for introducing many now revered 19th-century Danish artists to the international market.

Early life

She was born on 24 May 1934 in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, the daughter of John Henry Noble and his wife, Grace, of 119 Loughborough Road. She was educated at

Wycombe Abbey Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls' boarding and day school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls schools in academic results. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847 ...

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

, Buckinghamshire. At Wycombe Abbey she became friends with the Shand sisters – Elspeth, later Baroness Howe of Idlicote, and Mary, who later married the architect James Stirling. Lady Abdy later went up to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, where she read English and graduated in 1955. After her graduation from Somerville, she went to work in London as an assistant selling

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

paintings. It was there where she met Sir Robert "Bertie" Abdy, 5th baronet, an art dealer whose vast fortune derived from the family's ownership of large parts of

London Docklands London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, London Borough of ...

. They married on 5 September 1962 when she was 28 and he was 66. Earlier that year, he had divorced his second wife, Lady Diana Bridgeman, who had suffered brain damage after a car crash in 1956. The couple lived in a duplex flat at 55

Eaton Square Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgravia ...

and at

Newton Ferrers Newton Ferrers is a village and former manor and ecclesiastical parish in the English county of Devon; it is now in the civil parish of Newton and Noss. It is situated on a creek of the River Yealm estuary, about south-east of the City of Plym ...

, a 17th-century country house in

St Mellion St Mellion ( kw, Sen Melyan) is a village and rural civil parishes in England, civil parish in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is about south of Callington, Cornwall, Callington and is in the St Germans Registration District. ...

, Cornwall, that Abdy had acquired in 1936 and then renovated in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

taste.

Career

Lady Abdy was a

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including Eliz ...

and read voraciously in French and English. Her friends included

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

and

Diana Mitford Diana, Lady Mosley (''née'' Freeman-Mitford; 17 June 191011 August 2003) was one of the Mitford sisters. In 1929 she married Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, with whom she was part of the Bright Young Things social group o ...

Hugo Vickers Hugo Ralph Vickers DL (born 12 November 1951) is an English writer and broadcaster. Early life The son of Ralph Cecil Vickers, M.C., a stockbroker, senior partner in the firm of Vickers, da Costa, by his marriage in 1950 to Dulcie Metcalf, ...

a writer, broadcaster and close friend of Lady Abdy, notes that she was particularly keen on the

Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...

: She staged exhibitions from the late 1960s through the 1970s with her husband at the tiny Ferrers Gallery in

Piccadilly Arcade Piccadilly Arcade runs between Piccadilly and Jermyn Street in central London. It was opened in 1909, having been designed by Thrale Jell, and is a Grade II listed building. The arcade is composed of twenty-eight shops on the ground floor. ...

. During those years she was especially interested in the paintings and prints of

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), anglicized as James Tissot (), was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871 ...

and

Paul César Helleu Paul César Helleu (17 December 1859 – 23 March 1927) was a French oil painter, pastel artist, drypoint etcher, and designer, best known for his numerous portraits of beautiful society women of the '' Belle Époque''. He also conceived the cei ...

. She was one of the first art dealers in modern times to appreciate the portraits of

Jacques-Émile Blanche Jacques-Émile Blanche (; 1 January 1861 – 30 September 1942) was a French artist, largely self-taught, who became a successful portrait painter, working in London and Paris. Early life Blanche was born in Paris. His father, whose name he s ...

and

Giovanni Boldini Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 – 11 January 1931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career. According to a 1933 article in ''Time'' magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" becaus ...

and also promoted the cat studies by

Théophile Steinlen Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (November 10, 1859 – December 13, 1923), was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker. Biography Born in Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-R ...

and innovative colour posters of

Jules Chéret Jules Chéret (31 May 1836 – 23 September 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of ''Belle Époque'' poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster. Early life and career Born in Paris to a poor but ...

. With the help of

Jeremy Maas Jeremy Stephen Maas (31 August 1928 – 23 January 1997) was an English art dealer and art historian, best known for his expertise in Victorian painting. Early and private life Maas was born in Penang, then in British Malaya. His father, Oscar Hen ...

and Christopher Wood, she was responsible for the modern revival of interest in the painter

John Atkinson Grimshaw John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was an English Victorian-era artist best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes.Alexander Robertson, ''Atkinson Grimshaw'', London, Phaidon Press, 1996 H. J. Dyos and ...

. The Abdys divorced in 1972, but she continued to look after him until his death in 1976. At the end of the 1970s, in partnership with Anne Heseltine, Lady Abdy formed the

Bury Street Bury Street is a one-way street in St James's, London SW1. It runs roughly north-to-south from Jermyn Street to King Street, and crosses Ryder Street. Street history Probably taking its name from Bury St Edmunds, Rushbrooke, the country seat ...

Gallery in

St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the de ...

. She entertained in her terraced house opposite

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

's in Gerald Road,

Belgravia Belgravia () is a Districts of London, district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' Tudor Period, during the ...

, where her drawing room was dominated by

Winterhalter Winterhalter is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert G. Winterhalter (1856–1920), admiral in the United States Navy, commander in chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet from 1915 to 1917 * Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873), ...

’s near life-size portrait of

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia (born Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, 8 July 1830 – 6 July 1911) was the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Duchess Amelia of Württemberg. She is an ancestress of the British, G ...

. Around this time her friend James Reeve painted a full-length portrait of Lady Abdy in the Mexican jungle. In the 1980s Heseltine left the gallery and Lady Abdy turned her attention to 19th-century Danish paintings and prints. She exhibited works by

Vilhelm Hammershøi Vilhelm Hammershøi (), often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 186413 February 1916), was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors.Souren Melikian,Hammershoi's decade of brilliance, before banality set ...

Christen Købke Christen Schiellerup Købke (26 May 1810 – 7 February 1848) was a Danish painter, and one of the best known artists from the Golden Age of Danish Painting. Childhood and early training He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was one of 11 c ...

and

Peter Ilsted Peter Ilsted (14 February 1861 – 16 April 1933) was a Danish artist and printmaker. He was most associated with domestic interior scenes. Biography Peter Vilhelm Ilsted was born at Sakskøbing in Guldborgsund, Denmark. He was the son of me ...

. She also worked as a bidding agent for a member of the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...

. As well as producing exhibition catalogues, Lady Abdy co-authored ''The Souls'' (1984, with Charlotte Gere) which profiled the members of the late-19th century elite social group of that name.

Later life

In 1990 she moved to 8 Pelham Place where she stayed for the rest of her life. 8 Pelham Place is famous as the London home of her friend

from 1940 to 1975, where in 1967 he photographed the model

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London. ...

wearing a yellow velvet dress for an editorial for ''Vogue''. Jane died at the age of 81, on 22 December 2015, at her home in Pelham Place. Her collection of art went on sale by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in an online auction, called ''La Belle Epoque: 19th & 20th Century Pictures''. A remembrance by the writer

calls her "Belle of the London Art World".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdy, Lady Jane 1934 births 2015 deaths English socialites Wives of baronets English art dealers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford People from Leicester People educated at Wycombe Abbey 20th-century English businesspeople 20th-century English businesswomen