Location of Grafton Galleries, 1894The Grafton Street entrance to the Grafton Galleries, Illustrated London News, 25 February 1893The Octagon Gallery at the Grafton Galleries, The Graphic, 25 February 1893The Long Gallery at the Grafton Galleries, The Graphic, 25 February 1893
The date of foundation of the Grafton Galleries is not certain; some sources give 1873, when it had an address in Liverpool.[3] The gallery was incorporated in London on 16 June 1891, and opened in February 1893 at 8 Grafton Street, with an extensive suite of rooms extending to Bruton Street.[4][5] (The address was usually given as Grafton Street-Bond Street). The building was designed by John Thomas Wimperis (1829-1904) and William Henry Arber (1849-1904). The first manager was Francis Gerard Prange.[3]
By the early 1900s Venant Benoist, a French-born caterer working in Piccadilly, was the manager, and the buildings were let out for receptions, dinners, concerts and dances. The downstairs banqueting hall, hung with the famous groups of the Dilettante Society painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was described by The Times as "one of the most beautiful dining rooms in London".[6]
From 1905 or earlier, Roger Fry was an advisor to the gallery; he asked William Rothenstein to advise him on exhibition content.[7]
In 1930 a Mr Hurcomb of Piccadilly bought the lease and converted the premises into an auction house,[6] but it was still occasionally used for exhibitions until around 1936. The building was damaged in the Second World War and not restored.[8]
The first London exhibition of the Grafton Galleries opened on 18 February 1893. Despite many ups and downs, the Galleries were still in use in 1936.[9]
In 1894 Fair Women - which according to Meaghan Clarke was the Victorian equivalent of a contemporary blockbuster exhibition - featured historical and contemporary portraits of 'fair' women. Takings over the run of the show reached £8,000.[5]
The most celebrated exhibitions held there were Paul Durand-Ruel's Impressionist show of 1905, and the two Post-Impressionist exhibitions put on by Roger Fry: Manet and the Post-Impressionists in 1910–11, and the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition of 1912.
Exhibitions held at the gallery include:[3][10][11]
1893, February: First exhibition, consisting of paintings and sculpture, by British and foreign artists of the present day
1893, May: Second exhibition, consisting of the third exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters, by British and foreign artists of the present day
1893, November–December: First exhibition of French artists in decorative art
1894: Fair women, loan exhibition of English portraits
1894: Fourth exhibition of Grafton Gallery, including a retrospective exhibition of work of Albert Moore, and a general collection of British and foreign works
1895: Winter exhibition of the works of old Scottish portrait painters, with a selection of the pictures of John Thomson of Duddingston and a collection of old Scottish silver and weapons
1895: Fair children, loan exhibition of English portraits
1896: Sixth exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters
1896, January–March: A loan collection of modern pictures, chiefly of the Barbizon and Dutch schools, with a collection of 200 original drawings by Paul Renouard[fr] and others
The Ridley Art Club held its annual exhibition at the gallery from 1897 to 1919; the Society of Miniaturists held its annual exhibition there from 1905 until 1926;[3] and the Allied Artists' Association held its annual show in the Grafton Galleries from 1916 to 1920.[7]
