News & Events

Today is the first anniversary of opening in Ludlow. The sun is shining and looking back over the past twelve months there is much to be optimistic about. Business has been good both locally and with old clients and the welcome from the town has been warm. The set-up of the gallery, within the house, has worked well and my window displays always attract a lot of interest from passers-by. This summer I will be putting on an exhibition of original paintings of Ludlow and the surrounding area which I hope will be of real interest to people living here whether or not they are art-buyers. I am also exhibiting at the Burton Court Antiques Fair in May which I hope will be a good promotional event (and with any luck there may be some sales too). Personally, I am much happier in Ludlow and in my own gallery and I look forward to the coming of spring and all that the next year will bring.

On Thursday, 17th July, Kimberly and I went to Cardiff to see the Richard Wilson exhibition at the National Museum. Happily, we had been alerted, by Peter Lord, to the James Dickson Innes (1887-1914) exhibition which finished on Sunday. It was a revelation and if you didn't see it then it is well worth getting the catalogue which remains on sale at the Museum.


Reviews of 'Richard Wilson (1714-82) and the Transformation of British Landscape Painting', are now appearing in the newspapers and the ones I have seen have been very positive and have rightly emphasised how long overdue this reappraisal is. It has been said that he is a 'forgotten' painter, despite being the acknowledged 'father of British landscape painting' and a major inspiration for both Constable and Turner. Whilst he is highly unlikely to achieve the stature of these two giants in British public consciousness, his best work has always attracted a strong following amongst serious collectors of early British art so I don't think this is really true. However, there is no doubt that he is deserving of far broader recognition and hopefully the current exhibition will go some way to achieving this.


This exhibition, previously shown in the U.S at Yale (and which goes on, at the end of the year, to Stuttgart), is very wide-ranging and includes a good many of Wilson's finest drawings. Whilst the emphasis is on his Italian classicism there are a number of paintings which will be of great appeal to those who are particularly interested in his Welsh views. Foremost amongst these are the two monumental landscapes (Llangollen & View near Wynnstay) painted for the coming-of-age of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 4th bt, in 1770. As these have been in America since the 1980's, it is a very rare chance to see them. I am also happy to say that Wilson's very early and very fine portrait of John Jones of Pentre Mawr, which I rediscovered last year, has been lent by its new owner.


A superb catalogue replete with scholarly articles is available. This, together with Dr Spencer-Longhurst's forthcoming catalogue raisonee of Wilson's work (to be published by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art towards the end of the year), should provide a tremendous boost to Wilson scholarship.


The Richard Wilson exhibition runs until 26 October 2014 and entry is free.

The new gallery has now been open for three weeks and so far it has been gratifyingly busy. The use of part of this historic house for displaying period art has been very well received by many Ludlovians a good many of whom have expressed the concern they felt during the years that the house was in poor condition. Happily, this neglect saved it from being stripped out and/or 'modernised' and the atmosphere that is so appreciated today would have been destroyed if it had not slumbered so long.




Trade has been brisk and in the coming couple of weeks the sold pictures from the inaugural 'Discoveries' show will be delivered to their new owners and some new stock will be hung. This will include a fine pair of sporting landscapes by the Chester painter Daniel Clowes and a very charming late 17thc English portrait of a child with his pet spaniel.




Ludlow is warming up with the spring. I very much look forward to welcoming old friends, and new ones, in the coming weeks and months.

The new gallery will open on Friday 21st February with an exhibition entitled 'Discoveries'. This will focus on pictures I have rediscovered in the past year or two i.e those which came to the market with the wrong attribution or no attribution at all and with the wrong identification or which were unidentified.
The highlight of the exhibition is an important lost portrait by Richard Wilson (1713-1782) but there will be a number of other interesting English and Welsh exhibits. Everything will be for sale.

Formal consent for the new gallery has finally arrived and good progress is being made with getting the space ready to hang pictures. I will be opening with an exhibition primarily made up of new Discoveries. These are pictures which came to the market with the wrong attribution or no attribution at all or without their subject being correctly identified. Research has revealed the true stories behind them. It should be a very interesting show and will contain one or two important finds.....