SUMMER COLLECTION 2019

From Gracechurch Street to Beauchamp Place…

As I sit here looking through this, our Summer catalogue, I marvel at the beauty of the collection and I am drawn into thinking about the story behind each and every painting.

I take great pride from the quality of the works, and it heartens me to remember that being true to yourself and the values and aesthetics that we as a gallery hold dear, helps us to continue to get things right at a time when one often thinks that the world has gone slightly mad.

The illustrious past of Gladwells is our foundation, a bedrock that allows us to learn and permits us to be intrepid. Whilst I was at the exceptional “Van Gogh and Britain’ exhibition at the Tate Gallery recently, I was reminded of a chapter of Gladwell’s history of which we are extremely proud – Vincent and the young Harry Gladwell had become friends in Paris whilst Harry was working in Goupil’s Art Gallery. Harry had been sent there by his father to develop his knowledge of the art world and to prepare him for his future in Gladwell’s Gallery.

As two young men Vincent and Harry were on a shared cultural journey, they explored artists, literature and museums and they were inspired by the paintings and prints they saw. The older Van Gogh tutored Harry, helping him learn more about collecting prints often bestowing gifts upon one another –

“Gladwell brought me to the train last Friday evening. On my birthday he came in the morning at half past six already and brought a very beautiful etching after Chauvel for me, an autumn landscape with a flock of sheep on a sandy road.”

The exhibition at the Tate is spectacular. Looking at his paintings and sketches I fully appreciated the artistic journey Harry and Vincent experienced in Paris and London. You are immersed in the colour and vibrancy of Vincent’s works, and you feel his social conscience through the pen and brush. I felt as alive as Vincent and Harry must have done when wandering the streets of Paris and London. I still remember vividly when my father sent me to Paris as a teenager and the inspiration that it sparked in me for my future in the gallery.

Our three exhibitions of the first part of this year have all been exceptionally well received and successful. Proving again to us that it is best to let our collection and our paintings do the talking.

We look forward to welcoming you to one of our upcoming exhibitions at the R.H.S. Chelsea and Chatsworth Flower Shows or to our own events in the Isle of Man and here in the gallery. We hope you will share in the joy of the paintings that we have been lucky to find and acquire, often for just a moment, until they find another happy and appreciative custodian and home.

Trust, friendship, integrity and a love of art were as important to Harry and Vincent as they are to us today, and it is my hope that if we continue to strive to follow these tenets then we will succeed in creating collections of outstanding quality for you, our valued clients, that inspire and excite you.

With my best wishes,

Cory