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

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or 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 ...

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's Consulate (1799–1804) and Empire (1804–14), the Restoration (1814–30), the July Monarchy (1830–48), the Second Republic ...

. 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 area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

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

Wycombe Abbey Wycombe Abbey is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private girls' boarding and day school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847–1942), who was previously headmistress of ...

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

, 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 is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

, 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 the

Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Se ...

. 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 Squares in London, square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main ...

and at

Newton Ferrers Newton Ferrers is a village and former Manorialism, manor, civil parish, civil and ecclesiastical parish, now in the parish of Newton and Noss, in the South Hams district, in the county of Devon, England. It is situated on a creek of the River Y ...

, a 17th-century country house in

St Mellion St Mellion () is a village and rural civil parish in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is about south of Callington and is in the St Germans Registration District. To the north, the parish is bordered by Callington and St Dom ...

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

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

taste.

Career

Lady Abdy was a

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...

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 costume designer and set designer for stage and screen. His accolades ...

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

and

Diana Mitford Diana, Lady Mosley (''née'' Mitford; 17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003), known as Diana Guinness between 1929 and 1936, was a British fascist, aristocrat, writer, and editor. She was one of the Mitford sisters and the wife of Oswald Mosley, le ...

Hugo Vickers Hugo Ralph Vickers (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, Vic ...

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 () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

: 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. T ...

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

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), better known as James Tissot ( , ), was a French painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. He was born to a drapery merchant and a milliner and decided to pursue a career in art at a y ...

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 ceili ...

. 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, an only child, was born in Paris in the 16em ...

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" beca ...

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. He was politically engaged and collaborated with the anarchist and socialist press. Biography Born in Lausanne ...

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 bu ...

. With the help of Jeremy Maas 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 Queen Street, London, King Street, and crosses Ryder Street. Street history Probably taking its name from Bury St Edmunds, Rushbr ...

Gallery in

St James's St James's is a district of Westminster, and a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End of London, West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace and much of ...

. 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), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

's in Gerald Road,

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

, where her drawing room was dominated by Winterhalter’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. Early life Alexandra's parents we ...

. 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. In 1905, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote of the artist, "Hammershøi is no ...

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 ...

and

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

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

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ) 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 his brothers, though the ruling fa ...

. 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), widely known by the nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a Culture of the United Kingdom, British cultural icon and a prominent teenage model during th ...

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 multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

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