The Fine Art Society is an art dealership with two premises, one in New Bond Street, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (held since 1876, given a new entrance in 1881 by Edward William Godwin

Edward William Godwin

Edward William Godwin was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic...

, and fully refurbished in 2004-05, with a New Gallery created for contemporary work) and the other in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 (Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). It was formed in 1876. Its speciality is British art and design from 1600 to the present (with the Edinburgh premises specialising in Scottish art of this period).

Historically, the Society is best known as a pioneer in the idea of the one-man exhibition, most famously that of Whistler

James McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...

's Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 etchings in 1883. Living exhibitors at the London premises have included John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...

, Frank Brangwyn

Frank Brangwyn

Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...

, Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert

Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....

, Lamorna Birch

Lamorna Birch

Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS was an artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the soubriquet "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from Lionel Birch, an artist who was also working in the area at that time.-Biography:Lamorna Birch was...

, Walter Crane

Walter Crane

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...

, George Washington Lambert

George Washington Lambert

George Washington Thomas Lambert ARA was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait paintings and as a war artist during the First World War.-Early life:...

, Joseph Southall

Joseph Southall

Joseph Edward Southall RWS NEAC RBSA was an English painter associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.A leading figure in the nineteenth century revival of painting in tempera, Southall was the leader of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen—one of the last outposts of Romanticism in...

, Arthur Wardle

Arthur Wardle

Arthur Wardle was an English painter.Born in London, aged just sixteen Wardle had a piece displayed at the Royal Academy. His first exhibit was a study of cattle by the River Thames, leading to a lifelong interest in painting animals...

, Norman Wilkinson

Norman Wilkinson (artist)

Norman Wilkinson CBE aka Norman L. Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur...

, George Spencer Watson

George Spencer Watson

George Spencer Watson R.O.I., R.P., A.R.A., R.A. was an English portrait artist of the late romantic school who sometimes worked in the style of the Italian Renaissance. He studied at the RA Schools from 1889, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1891...

, Violet Lindsay

Marion Margaret Violet Lindsay

Violet Lindsay Manners, Duchess of Rutland was a British artist and noblewoman.-Family:She was the second daughter of Charles Hugh Lindsay and Emilia Anne Browne...

 and Richard Caton Woodville

Richard Caton Woodville

Richard Caton Woodville was an English artist and illustrator, who is best known for being one of the most prolific and effective painters of battle scenes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-Biography:...

. Memorial exhibitions have included one to Lady Alma Tadema in 1910.

The Society also puts on shows and fairs in New York, Dubai, Maastricht, Hong Kong and London. Its chairmen have included Angus Grossart

Angus Grossart

Sir Angus McFarlane McLeod Grossart, CBE is a Scottish businessman.Born in Lanarkshire, he was schooled at The Glasgow Academy and studied law at Glasgow University...

.

External links

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