The gallery, now staging its 21st annual exhibition, had been established as a breakaway rival to the Grosvenor Gallery, taking some of its key exhibitors, like Edward Burne-Jones. After its opening in 1888, the Grosvenor only lasted for two years before its collapse in 1890. On its demise, the New Gallery took virtually all of the Grosvenor Gallery’s ‘aesthetic’ artists and others who were at odds with the Academy. As the New English Art Club became more exclusive and orientated towards former Slade students, the New Gallery was briefly the main alternative London salon to the Royal Academy and it flourished in the early years of the century, only to falterafter a weak exhibition in 1909, and with falling admissions, the Gallery was closed, sold off and converted into a cinema.
Related Material
References
McConkey, Kenneth. Lavery and the Glasgow Boys. Exhibition Catalogue. Clandeboye, County Down: The Ava Gallery; Edinburgh: Bourne Fine Art; London: The Fine Art Society, 2010. No. 23.
Last modified 4 October 2011