Thomas Agnew & Sons is a
fine arts dealer in London that began life as part of in a print and publishing partnership with Vittore Zanetti in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
in 1817 which ended in 1835, when Agnew took full control of the company. The firm opened its London gallery in 1860, where it soon established itself as one of Mayfair's leading dealerships. Since then Agnew's has held a pre-eminent position in the world of Old Master paintings. It also had a major role in the massive growth of a market for contemporary British art in the late 19th century. In 2013, after nearly two centuries of family ownership, Agnew's closed. The name was subsequently purchased privately and the gallery is now run by
Lord Anthony Crichton-Stuart, a former head of Christie's Old Master paintings department, New York.
History
Agnew's, as it is commonly called, has long held a prominent position in the
Bond Street
Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...
trade in
pictures. The founder's sons,
Sir William Agnew, 1st Baronet
Sir William Agnew, 1st Baronet (20 October 1825 – 31 October 1910) was an English politician and art dealer. Thomas Agnew & Sons, his London art business in Mayfair flourished as one of the leading art dealerships in London from 1860, until ...
(1825–1910) and Thomas Agnew (1827–1883), were pivotal in the firm's rise in London, where Agnew's first established itself in 1860. Broadly speaking, Sir William's line produced the in-house connoisseurs (most notably C. Morland Agnew
855–1931, while Thomas's son, W. Lockett Agnew (1858–1918), inherited his father's commercial flair.
It was William Agnew who shifted the gallery trade to Old Masters. As ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' noted in Sir William's obituary, "in 1877 the firm had built rooms in 39 Old Bond Street (later called 43 Old Bond Street), and when the succession of Old Master exhibitions, the example of Sir Richard Wallace and the Rothschilds, and the revived passion for eighteenth-century architecture and furniture had turned the taste of the new rich men back to the older art, William Agnew was ready to find the pictures."
![Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary leaving Agnew's after a private view in 1935](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Their_Majesties_King_George_V_and_Queen_Mary_leaving_Agnew%27s_after_a_private_view_in_1935.jpg)
Agnew's acted as principal agent and advisor to
Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh
Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, (10 November 1847 – 7 October 1927) was an Irish businessman and philanthropist. A member of the prominent Anglo-Irish Guinness family, he was the head of the family's eponymous brewing business, ma ...
(1847–1927). The firm also held a significant part in the collecting activities of
Alfred Beit
Alfred Beit (15 February 1853 – 16 July 1906) was a Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate in South Africa, and a major donor and profiteer of infrastructure development on the African continent. He also donated much money to university edu ...
(1853–1906),
John G. Johnson
John Graver Johnson (1841, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – April 13, 1917, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American corporate lawyer and art collector. The Philadelphia law firm that he founded in 1863 continues under the name Saul Ewing. H ...
(1841–1917),
Alfred de Rothschild
Alfred Charles ''Freiherr'' de Rothschild, CVO (20 July 1842 – 31 January 1918), was the second son of Lionel ''Freiherr'' de Rothschild and Charlotte ''Freifrau'' von Rothschild of the Rothschild family.
Education
As a young man, Alfred a ...
(1842–1918),
Ferdinand de Rothschild
Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (17 December 1839 – 17 December 1898), also known as Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild, was a British Jewish banker, art collector and politician who was a member of the prominent Rothschild family of ...
(1839–1898),
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major ...
, and
George Salting
George Salting (15 August 183512 December 1909) was an Australian-born British art collector. He had inherited considerable wealth from his father; Salting collected paintings, Chinese porcelains, furniture, and many other categories of art and ...
(1835–1909).
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...
(1865–1936) visited Agnew's Bond Street galleries on numerous occasions. Additionally, Agnew's often served as agent for the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in the salerooms. More recently, important clients include
Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 1, 1999) was an American philanthropist and an owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall ...
(1907–1999),
Norton Simon
Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion.
...
(1907–1993), and the
Samuel Henry Kress
Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collections of Italian R ...
Foundation. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the firm was well regarded not only by the era's leading collectors, but also by fellow dealers. Consequently, in Bond Street, Agnew's enjoyed friendly relations with
Knoedler
M. Knoedler & Co. was an art dealership in New York City founded in 1846. When it closed in 2011, amid lawsuits for fraud, it was one of the oldest commercial art galleries in the US, having been in operation for 165 years.
History
Knoedler dat ...
,
Arthur Joseph Sulley
Arthur Joseph Sulley (1853-1930) was a London-based art dealer best known for selling Dutch Old Master paintings, including the record-setting Rembrandt van Rijn's ''The Mill''.
Personal life
Sulley was born in 1854 Reist, Inge ed. ''British Mod ...
(1853–1930), the Wertheimer brothers, and in Paris,
Charles Sedelmeyer
Charles Sedelmeyer (30 April 1837, Vienna – 9 August 1925, Paris) was an Austrian and French art dealer, collector, and publisher active in Paris from 1866, with premises at 6 rue de la Rochefoucauld.
He is credited with popularising the Dutch ...
(1837–1925).
![RokebyVenus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/RokebyVenus.jpg)
During the remainder of the 20th century and up to today, Agnew's has placed many masterpieces in major museums in Europe, America, and in emerging global markets. The contributions to the collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of cha ...
, and the
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
, are noteworthy. The firm has handled major pictures by, amongst others,
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...
,
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
,
Van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
,
El Greco
Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...
,
Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vig ...
,
Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
,
Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...
,
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
,
Rubens,
Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
,
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
,
Pontormo
Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as ''Jacopo da Pontormo'', ''Jacopo Pontormo'', or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound st ...
,
J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbule ...
,
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".
Wr ...
, and
Velázquez, including the latter's ''
Rokeby Venus
The ''Rokeby Venus'' (; also known as ''The Toilet of Venus'', ''Venus at her Mirror'', ''Venus and Cupid'', or '' La Venus del espejo'') is a painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. Completed between 1647 ...
'' in the National Gallery, London.
Agnew's also exhibited and sold works of Impressionist and Modern artists such as
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
,
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
,
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
,
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
,
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
, and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
. In recent years, the gallery has increasingly promoted the establishment of lesser-known artists of the early twentieth century, namely the German-Swedish painter and portraitist
Lotte Laserstein
Lotte Laserstein (28 November 1898 – 21 January 1993) was a German-Swedish painter.
Carol ...
.
In 2008, the purpose-built gallery in Old Bond Street (1877), designed by Salomons & Wornum, was sold by Agnew's to Etro, the Italian fashion house. In 2013, after nearly two centuries of family ownership, the firm was purchased privately and the new gallery relocated its premises from Albemarle Street to 6 St James's Place, London, under the directorship of art historian
Lord Anthony Crichton-Stuart. The Agnew family will continue as consulting participants in the firm's operation. The archive was given to the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
.
The National Gallery expands Research Centre through the acquisition of Agnew's archive
on museum website
The new gallery presents a broad range of genres and subjects, price ranges, and periods in several different mediums, including paintings, watercolours and drawings as well as sculpture
Particular attention in recent years has been paid to highlighting the work of lesser-known female artists in Western art history, such as Lotte Laserstein
Lotte Laserstein (28 November 1898 – 21 January 1993) was a German-Swedish painter.
Carol ...
, whose work was the focus of an Agnew's show in 2017
In 2021, the gallery ran an exhibition dedicated to Albrecht Dürer which included a newly found drawing by the artist: this previously unknown work has been subject to significant publicity
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner Ostende 1844.jpg, Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., ''Ostend,'' purchased from Agnew's in 1975 by the Neue Pinakothek, Munich.
File:Peter Paul Rubens - Samson and Delilah - WGA20266.jpg, Sir Peter Paul Rubens, ''Samson and Delilah,'' purchased by Agnew's on behalf of the Trustees of the National Gallery in 1980, The National Gallery, London.
File:Rembrandt Self-portrait (Kenwood).jpg, Rembrandt van Ryn, ''Self Portrait in Old Age'', purchased from Agnew's in 1888 by Sir E. C. Guinness, present owner: The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House.
File:Claude Monet - 1867 - Garden at Sainte-Adresse.jpg, Claude Monet, ''Terrace at Sainte-Adresse'', purchased from Agnew's by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1967.
File:Jan Vermeer van Delft 013.jpg, Jan Vermeer, ''The Guitar Player'', purchased from Agnew's in 1889 by Sir E. C. Guinness, present owner: The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House.
File:Waterloo BridgeConstable.jpg, John Constable, ''The Opening of Waterloo Bridge,'' purchased from Agnew's in 1987 by The Tate Gallery, Tate Britain.
File:Albrecht-self.jpg, Albrecht Dürer, ''Self-portrait,'' purchased from Agnew's in 1900 by Leopold Goldschmidt, present owner: The Louvre, Paris.
File:Paul Gauguin - Mata Mua (In Olden Times) - Google Art Project.jpg, Paul Gauguin, ''Mata Mua - in olden times'', purchased by Agnew's in 1984 on behalf of Baron Thyssen and Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, present owner: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
File:Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) (Italian, Florentine) - Portrait of a Halberdier (Francesco Guardi?) - Google Art Project.jpg, Jacopo Carucci, called Pontormo, ''Portrait of a Halberdier,'' purchased by Agnew's on behalf of the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1989.
File:Portrait of Colonel Charles Heathcote by Joseph Wright of Derby.jpg, Josef Wright of Derby, ''Portrait of Colonel Charles Heathcote'', oil on canvas, 127 x 100 cm, purchased from Agnew's in 2017 by The Cleveland Museum of Art.
References
External links
*official website
www.agnewsgallery.com
* Bendor Grosvenor
"Agnews to close"
''Art History News'' blog, February 2, 2013.
Artkurio blog with press coverage of closure
Thomas Agnew & Sons
in Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America at The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by B ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas Agnew And Sons
Agnew family
Art dealers from London