The Fine Art Society, London (original) (raw)

[The Fine Art Society has its own website, and devotees of Victorian and early-modern sculpture, painting, furniture, ceramics, and all aspects of design might wish to consult some of their currently available catalogues, which are always important sources of information. GPL]

THE FINE ART SOCIETY was founded in 1876 and quickly established itself as one of London's leading art dealers. The front of its New Bond Street building was remodelled in 1881 by E. W. Godwin, and the interior by Faulkner Armitage. The great watercolourists and draughtsmen of the 19th Century — Turner, Bewick and Palmer — featured in early exhibitions, as did Hokusai and Hiroshige. The publishing of engravings after works by the leading artists of the day — Leighton, Millais, Herkomer, Holman Hunt and Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) — was an important early activity.

The Society pioneered the idea of the one-man exhibition. The most sensational of these was the 1883 exhibition of Whistler's Venetian etchings entitled An Arrangement in White and Yellow. This imaginative commission given to Whistler in the wake of the notorious Ruskin-Whistler trial was neatly balanced by financial support for Ruskin through an exhibition of the latter's collection of J.M.W. Turner watercolours.

John Singer Sargent, Frank Brangwyn, Walter Sickert, and the sculptors Alfred Gilbert, Hamo Thornycroft and George Frampton all exhibited at the gallery. The Fine Art Society also mounted all the London exhibitions of Leon Bakst, major shows of Mestrovic and Gluck and more recently represented James Mclntosh Patrick, Richard Eurich, Edward Bawden and other distinguished artists of the last sixty years.

The Fine Art Society has played a pioneering role in the revival of interest in the early years of the New English Art Club, the Glasgow Boys, the Birmingham Group, the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the designs of Christopher Dresser and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish Colourists, the sculpture of the inter-war years, and post-war design.

The Fine Art Society is based at an expansive gallery over two floors in the heart of Edinburgh's New Town. The gallery provides advice to collectors and public institutions on private sales, auction, framing and conservation. The exhibition programme enriches, supports and expands the market for historical fine art and design. As one of the oldest fine art dealers in the UK, The Fine Art Society continues to handle many of the most influential artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with whom they have historic links.

They provide advice to collectors and public institutions, at all levels, on private sales, auction purchasing, framing, conservation and curating a collection.

Director

Emily Walsh

Opening Hours

Tuesday - Friday 10am-6pm

Saturday 11am-2pm

Mondays by appointment

Communications

Address: 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ

Telephone: +44 (0)131 557 4050

E-mail: art@thefineartsociety.com

Website: www.thefineartsociety.com

Updated by JB, 27 October 2025