London Walk: A History of Art Collecting From the 18th Century to Today

Meet at 10:50am for an 11am start at Green Park Station. We will finish around 1:30pm with a break for coffee. Lunch in a nearby restaurant.

The modern history of auctioning artworks as we know today, goes back to the 1700’s along with the establishment of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. However, the concept of buying and selling art in this way has a much longer history - tablets actually survive from the ancient city of Pompeii with records of artwork auctions. This Artemisia Walk will take you through the modern day history of collecting and the relevance of London as one of the key centres for the rise of contemporary art, its mega collectors and the immense prices that come along with it.

We will meet at Green Park Station to discuss the Royal court and a little about the history of the area and its great houses. Walking through the back streets of St. James’s we will stop and discuss the patrons and local trade looking at Spencer House, Christie’s Auction House, established in 1766 and the great shoe, hat and wine establishments still trading here over 250 years later, among other local sites. We will discuss how art changes hands and why, why economic wealth leads to acquisition of historic, cultural objects and how in today’s world that has become increasingly challenging.

In that context, we may peek into White Cube Gallery owned by Jay Jopling and discuss the contemporary art market. If time we will visit the historic Wren church, St. James’s Piccadilly on Jermyn Street with its superb Grinling Gibbons marble front and lime wood reredos.

As we head to the newly renovated National Gallery, celebrating its 200th year, we will discuss why and how it was founded. There we will have a close look at painting number I in the catalogue, Sebastiano del Piombo’s Raising of Lazarus. We will also look at the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez and its acquisition, controversies and how each generation ‘sees’ different things in works of art. We may even end our session discovering the next great auctioneer.

The walk will be led by Cat Manson. Cat worked at Christie’s for 25 years, most recently as Senior Director, Global Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs. She is now an independent advisor, she has worked with AHA for many years and also leads our trips. This walk will begin at Green Park Station at 11am and finish at 1.30pm with a break mid-morning for coffee. We will have lunch at a good restaurant nearby if you would like to join us.

Host or Publisher Art History Abroad