ABBEY GALLERY

c.1924 - c.1930

Abbey Gallery at 2 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, originally the trading arm of W. R. Deighton & Sons who were originally established in the closing years of the 19th century as fine art dealers and publishers. William Robert Deighton (28 March 1843-25 February 1932) from Greenwich then in Kent began his career as a pawnbroker's assistant and in the 1891 census he is listed as a fine art publisher & dealer. In 1905 he published his 'Illustrated Catalogue of Publications Issued by W R Deighton and Sons Ltd, Fine Art Publishers and Dealers, Frame Makers' and his son Wilfred Victor Deighton (1887-25 August 1959) also worked with him in the business. The first notice of the 'Abbey Gallery' at 1 Victoria Street of W. R. Deighton & Sons Ltd., with their premises at 4 Grand Hotel Building, Charing Cross and 35 Cranbourn Street, Leicester Square, was in an advertisement in the Daily Express of 18 October 1924 and the gallery did champion Anthony Gross (19 March 1905-8 September 1984) and sponsored the future Royal Academician to travel around Europe and North Africa sending back to London paintings, drawings and etchings which resulted in Gross having his first solo London exhibition in 1924. They exhibited the works of the members of the Society of Parson Painters and the last exhibition noted was of the works of Countess Ingegerd Ahlefeldt-Laurvig on 30 June 1930. Other Suffolk exhibiting artists included Winifred Austen, Malcolm Osborne Sir Henry George Rushbury, Leonard Squirrell, Sidney Tushingham and Arthur Pretyman Waller. Other exhibitors included William Lionel Wyllie (5 July 1851-6 April 1931), Australian artists Lionel Lindsay (17 October 1874-22 May 1961), Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879-21 November 1969), Sydney Long (20 August 1871-23 January 1955), Sydney Ure Smith (9 January 1887-11 October 1949), Henri Benedictus Van Raalte (11 Feburary 1881-4 November 1929), Archibald Bertram Webb (4 March 1887-23 January 1947), and the Pastel Society held their 1929 exhibition at the Gallery. The gallery ceased to trade around 1930 and the company was struck off in 1933.

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Works by This Artist