The Chenil Gallery (often referred to as the Chenil Galleries, or New Chenil Galleries) was a British art gallery and sometime-music studio in Chelsea, London between 1905 and 1927, and later the location of various businesses referencing this early use.

History

Located at 181–183

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, the gallery was founded in 1905 by Jack Knewstub,Anne Helmreich and Ysanne Holt,
Marketing Bohemia: The Chenil Gallery in Chelsea, 1905-1926
, ''Oxford Art Journal'' (2010), Vol. 33, No. 1, p. 43-61. who had previously been an administrator of the Chelsea School of Art. The gallery, with two exhibition rooms, shared its building with Charles Chenil & Co Ltd., a seller of art supplies and picture frames. In 1927, Knewstub declared bankruptcy and closed the gallery; the Chenil name continued to be used in association with various exhibitions until the 1950s. During its lifetime, the gallery was one of group of galleries "favoured by the

Camden Town Group The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists founded in 1911 and active until 1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London. History In 1908, critic Frank R ...

artists", and was recognized for its exhibitions of British contemporary artists, including

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

William Orpen Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in ...

David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry ...

, Derwent Lees and

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

. Augustus John, who had a studio in the Chenil's garden, exhibited his work continuously at the gallery. However, the studio which began as a countercultural "bohemian" enterprise was unable to compete with studios attracting younger artists, and failed in efforts to reinvent itself along more commercial lines. The ultimate failure of the enterprise bankrupted Knewstub, who some years later was seen by a former gallery patron peddling vegetables from a cart. The record company

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

made its earliest recordings at the Chenil Gallery, and discographer

Brian Rust Brian Arthur Lovell Rust (19 March 1922 – 5 January 2011) was an English jazz discographer. Career Rust was born in 1922 in Golders Green, then part of the Municipal Borough of Hendon in Middlesex. He collected records from the age of fiv ...

noted that "the records made there invariably had a constricted sound that reminded listeners of the old acoustic method of recording". As of the mid-2000s, the building still stood and the gallery location had become "more of a shopping arcade" still operating under the Chenil Galleries name, with author Suzy Gershman describing it as being "known as a good place for antique medical instruments, as well as 17th- and 18th-century paintings and smaller items", as well as

costume jewelry Costume or fashion jewelry includes a range of decorative items worn for personal adornment that are manufactured as less expensive ornamentation to complement a particular fashionable outfit or garmentBaker, Lillian. Fifty Years of Collectabl ...

Selected exhibitions

In 1911,

James Dickson Innes James Dickson Innes (27 February 1887 – 22 August 1914) was a British painter, mainly of mountain landscapes but occasionally of figure subjects. He worked in both oils and watercolours. Style Of his style, art historian David Fraser Jenkins ...

had a two-man exhibition with Eric Gill at the Chenil Gallery, London: "Sculptures by Mr Eric Gill and Landscapes by Mr J. D. Innes". Innes had a second exhibition at the Chenil in 1913, shortly before his unexpected death. In 1914, the gallery exhibited David Bomberg's The Mud Bath as part of a solo exhibition of his work. A 1964

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

report noted that the painting was "hung outside the Gallery premises that it may have every advantage of lighting and space".

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher. He was one of the first British arti ...

persuaded his former pupil, Edna Clarke Hall, to hold a one-woman show at the gallery in 1914. This show was a critical success, with one review describing her as a 'sensitive and expressive draughtswoman who reaches a masterly plane' and admiring her 'individual and instinctive' use of colour. Again in 1914,

facilitated sculptor

Frank Dobson Frank Gordon Dobson (15 March 1940 – 11 November 2019) was a British Labour Party politician. As Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St. Pancras from 1979 to 2015, he served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 ...

being able to stage a one-man show at the gallery. In 1922

Leon Underwood George Claude Leon Underwood (25 December 1890 – 9 October 1975) was a British artist, although primarily known as a sculptor, printmaker and painter, he was also an influential teacher and promotor of African art. His travels in Mexico a ...

had his first solo exhibition at the gallery. William Roberts, who had been an official war artist, had his first one-man show at the Chenil Gallery in 1923. Augustus John's sister,

Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although s ...

, had the only solo exhibition in her lifetime at the gallery in 1926. Alexander Stuart-Hill displayed at the gallery in 1927.

Studio recordings

In 1926,

John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 194 ...

was invited to conduct a new ensemble at the gallery, initially called the "Chenil Chamber Orchestra" but later renamed "John Barbirolli's Chamber Orchestra". Barbirolli's concerts at the gallery impressed

Frederic Austin Frederic William Austin (30 March 187210 April 1952) was an English baritone singer, a musical teacher and composer in the period 1905–30. He is best remembered for his restoration and production of ''The Beggar's Opera'' by John Gay and Joha ...

, director of the

British National Opera Company The British National Opera Company presented opera in English in London and on tour in the British provinces between 1922 and 1929. It was founded in December 1921 by singers and instrumentalists from Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham's Beecham O ...

(BNOC), who in the same year invited him to conduct some performances with the company.Blyth, Alan. "Sir John Barbirolli talks to Alan Blyth", ''The Gramophone'', December 1969, p. 34. In 1930, jazz musician

Spike Hughes Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes (19 October 1908 – 2 February 1987) was a British musician, composer and arranger involved in the worlds of classical music and jazz. He has been called Britain's earliest jazz composer. Later in his career, he ...

first formed his own group and used the gallery as a recording venue for its music, in April of that year persuading the American musician

Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People ...

to visit Chelsea for some sessions whilst he was in the UK.Godbolt, Jim. ''A History of Jazz in Britain (1919-1950)'', (1984).

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

and his orchestra recorded there in July 1933, including the track ''Hyde Park''.Odeon 284058, Discogs
/ref>

References

External links

{{coord, 51.4873, -0.1688, type:landmark_region:GB-KEC, display=title 1906 establishments in England Contemporary art galleries in England King's Road, Chelsea, London