Name:Gladwell & Patterson
Category:Fine Art Paintings
Address:5, Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London. SW3 1NG UK
Tell:+44 02075845512
Email:Emily@gladwellpatterson.com
Website:www.gladwellpa erson.com
Intro
The path to Beauchamp Place, in the prestigious pocket of London’s
Knightsbridge, has been a distinguished two and a half century journey.
Ownership of the gallery passed through two Lord Mayors of London – its
founder Boydell and Sir Francis Moon. Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King
George V, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales all granted the firm Royal
Warrants as, variously, printmakers, publishers and art dealers.
In the early 19th century Thomas Henry Gladwell (1811–1879)
oversaw the gallery and, as with much of the company’s early history, its
services varied from art dealing to printer and stationer to engraver and
framer. On his death the business passed to his two sons, Henry William
Gladwell (1834–1893) and Alfred Thomas Gladwell (1841–1906). So was born
Gladwell Brothers, a partnership which was to last for a little over a decade
before the brothers went their separate ways.
In the late 19th century Harry Gladwell, son of Henry
William Gladwell, travelled to Paris where he made an impression on a
struggling young artist, one Vincent Van Gogh, who was working at the French
art dealer Goupils. Harry, it seems, was a bon viveur with an idiosyncratic appearance.
“Thin as a stick,” judged an 18-year-old Vincent van Gogh. “With two rows of
strong teeth, full red lips, a pair of large red protruding ears and close
cropped hair. At first everyone laughed at him, even I.”
Harry and Vincent were to become firm friends. They shared an apartment
in Montmartre, where van Gogh delighted in Harry’s appetite for food and in
turn guided the young Londoner on matters of family, art and religion. Vincent
grew to love the French bread and Harry also introduced him to porridge; Harry
began to collect prints advised by Vincent. “My worthy Englishman” as van Gogh
called the heir to Gladwell and Company was to replace Vincent at Goupils and
in correspondence between Vincent and his beloved brother Theo (as detailed in The Letters of
Vincent van Gogh, Penguin Classics) the artist describes how Harry was
to enter his father’s business.
The Gladwells later hosted Vincent on his numerous travels to England.
Vincent visited the gallery and then the family home. On one occasion he
discovered a house in mourning. Harry’s sister had been killed in a riding accident
on Blackheath. Vincent counseled his friend, whilst pacing Lewisham train
station. In a telling letter to his brother in the summer of 1876, Vincent sums
up their mutual affection in those awful moments. “We know each other so well,
his work was my work, the people he knows there I know too, his life was my
life,” states Vincent, “and it was given to me to see so deeply into their
family affairs, I think, because I believe that I love them.” The friendship
was to endure for many years.
Although always based in the City of London the company has had
branches in London’s grandest locales, with periods in Pall Mall, Kingsway and
Regent Street In the 1880’s the gallery was in Grace church Street before
moving to the corner of Cheapside and Queen Street. In 1928, the company moved
to Queen Victoria Street where it remained for 85 years. This was to become
known as “Gladwell’s Corner”. Within a mile of Lloyds of London, and in the
glorious shadow of St Pauls. Gladwell’s dealt with a broad canvas of works with
traditional figurative, landscape and marine subject matter, united by the
shared aspect of quality.
Over the course of the 20th century the gallery’s fortunes became
indelibly entwined with the Fuller family who still run the business to this
day. Three generations of Fullers have worked for the company, each bringing
their own particular vision. Anthony Fuller, the present Director and owner,
whose father joined the gallery in 1927, has been at the helm since his father
died in 1980. He has continued the Companies tradition of quality and value and
Glenn and Cory’s arrival has added an extra dimension to its development and
propel the gallery forward in this technological age.
The family has borne witness to extraordinary events during their
tenure. As the Blitz raged at the height of the Second World War the gallery’s
windows were blown out on 27 occasions although it is worth mentioning as a
reflection of today’s standards, each morning when Mr. Fuller arrived at the
gallery, the windows smashed and paintings spread over the pavement, not a
single picture was stolen. The greatest loss during these dramatic times was
the archive of letters from van Gogh to Harry Gladwell. Fortunately their
existence and content had previously been recorded for posterity. In 2004 a new venture saw the business arrive in Mayfair, as Gladwell
and Company purchased the old, highly-regarded firm of W.H. Patterson Fine Arts
at No. 19 Albemarle Street. The gallery had been the vision of Bill Patterson,
who fell, serendipitously, into dealing in pictures on being demobbed from the
RAF at the end of the war. It was a pleasure for the Fuller family to take on
the baton of this fine galleries history.
The
trajectory of the gallery’s celebrated history mirrors the verve of the
period’s artistic output: full of high vision and cultivated achievement. The
company’s origins are to be found in Gladwell & Company, founded by John
Boydell in 1752. Boydell initially specialised in the commission of fine prints
from the leading artist of the day. Reproductions, from Reynolds to Romney,
were his stock in trade. However, expansion was swift. Oils, watercolours, and
all further variations of printmaking, such as etching and mezzotinting soon
shared his gallery’s walls.