Victorian London : Mapping the Emergence of the Modern Art Gallery

Data » Gallery List


Arthur Lucas


The Database of 19th Century Photographers and Allied Trades in London: 1841-1901 (photoLondon.org.uk) identifies Arthur Lucas as a photographer, photographic publisher, fine art publisher, printseller, and a partner in Lucas & Tooth, art dealers. In the 1880s, Arthur Lucas exhibited pictures, published exhibition catalogues and was included in The Year’s Art in the listing of galleries that offered special exhibitions. However, in 1898, he testified before the Select Committee on the Copyright Bill and defined himself solely as an art publisher. When asked by Lord Thring “What do the words, ‘art publisher’ include, in your opinion? Do you sell pictures?”, he replied, “Not at all necessarily; I do not personally; I am exclusively an art publisher.” When pressed, however, he acknowledged, “In the case of an artist of eminence, one has to buy both the picture and the copyright, to secure the copyright.” (Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Copyright Bill [H.L.] and the Copyright (Amendment) Bill [H.L.], (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1898), 159.)

Address: 31 New Bond St  [google map of location]

Start Date: 1882

End Date: at least 1898

Other Locations:

37 Duke-street, St James's (by 1880-1881)
38 Baker St (by 1900-at least 1905)

Dealer: Arthur Lucas (b. 1842)

Selected exhibitions

A series of forty water-colour drawings by David Law, of the scenery of the Trosachs, illustrative of the poem of the Lady of the lake. (Spring 1884) [NAL]

Collection of 110 Modern Pictures (1884) [TYA 1885, 62]

Thisbe, by Edwin Long, R.A. (Spring 1885) [TYA 1886, 64]

Gen. Gordon and the Slave-hunters of Darfour [by Stanley Berkley] (Summer 1885) [TYA 1886, 64]

Etchings by David Law, together with some 20 of his watercolours: a summer’s work at the Brig O’Turk. (December 1885) [NAL]

The great awakening by Herbert Schmalz. (1898) [NAL]

Exhibition catalogues:  National Art Library, London  (1884, 1885, 1898)

 

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