Victorian London : Mapping the Emergence of the Modern Art Gallery

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Obach and Co.


Charles Obach worked at the Goupil Gallery in London from the early 1860s, and became branch manager in 1864. (In this capacity, he served as Vincent Van Gogh’s boss, during the artist’s stint in London.) In 1884, Obach left Goupil to start his own gallery, Obach and Co., with his partner Hans Velten. Obach retired in 1900, and that year the business was listed in The Year’s Art at 24 Haymarket. The business relocated to 168 New Bond Street in 1901. The Art Journal devoted a short article to the move, praising the new premises for being “convenient” and predicting they would “hold there own for refined and dignified decoration, and, above all, in respect of practical fitness for showing fine things adequately.” The article included a photograph of the new interior, showing a luxuriously appointed gallery space. It also noted that the inaugural exhibition of the new space was a show of French and Dutch masters of the nineteenth century, mounted in association with Messrs. Arnold and Tripp of Paris.

Address: 24 Haymarket

Start Date: 1900

End Date: 1900

Other Locations:

20 Cockspur-street Pall Mall (by 1884-1899)
168 New Bond St (1901-1912)
merge with Colnaghi in 1911
operate as PD Colnaghi & Obach at 144-46 New Bond St (1913-at least 1914)

Dealers

Charles Obach

Hans Velten

Selected exhibitions

For selected exhibitions, see: “Exhibitions Associated with: Obach and Co.”
http://www.exhibitionculture.arts.gla.ac.uk/gall_exhlist.php?gid=20
Exhibition Culture in London 1878-1908, University of Glasgow

Sources

“Charles Obach, 1841-1921.” James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings. A Catalogue Raisonné.  [http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/biog/?nid=ObacC]
Accessed 9 August 2012.

Fletcher, Pamela and Anne Helmreich. “Selected galleries, dealers and exhibition spaces in London, 1850-1939.” In The Rise of the Modern Art Market in London, 1850-1939. Eds. Pamela Fletcher and Anne Helmreich. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011. 298-299.

“H.W.B.” “Messrs. Obach and Co.’s New Galleries in London.” Art Journal, October 1901, 317.

“Obach and Co.” http://www.exhibitionculture.arts.gla.ac.uk/gallery.php?gid=20
Exhibition Culture in London 1878-1908, University of Glasgow.

Unless otherwise noted, the documentation of a gallery’s start and end dates at a location is drawn from listings in The Year’s Art.


How to cite:
Pamela Fletcher and David Israel, London Gallery Project, 2007; Revised September 2012.
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/fletcher/london-gallery/

Bowdoin College