Percy Moore Turner

Connoisseur, Impresario and Art Dealer

Sarah A. M. Turner

• Publisher: Unicorn
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781911604662
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Grudgingly acknowledged as the main mentor for the Courtaulds in building their art collections, the London and Paris art dealer, Percy Moore Turner, is now largely forgotten in this country. Yet, in France, he was honoured by the French Government with the award of Officer and then Commander of the Legion d'Honneur and feted by the Museums of France with specially struck medals.In this, the first biography of Percy Moore Turner, his granddaughter, who has access to his few remaining business papers and unpublished autobiography, has researched his life and career.Involved with the Bloomsbury Group from before the First World War, he was actively courted by Roger Fry at the end of the War to manage an artists' association for them when Turner was still serving in the Army. Instead, Turner promoted them when he opened his London Gallery with some success until 1925 when the Group, embarrassed by the financial losses caused by them to him, 'sacked' him on friendly terms.Born in Halifax in 1877 into a family of hosiers and haberdashers, Turner's life and career spanned two World Wars and periods of economic volatility. He tirelessly promoted modern French art internationally and built up a client base which included Dr Albert Barnes, John Quinn, Charles Lang Freer, Samuel Courtauld, Russell Colman and Frank Hindley Smith. A longstanding friend of Kenneth Clark, Turner strove to ensure that his own art collection was placed appropriately in museums and galleries throughout Britain and France, considering himself merely the custodian of the pictures he owned. Contents: 1. Childhood - Halifax to Norwich 2. Getting started 3. Gallery Barbazanges 4. Starting again – The Independent Gallery 5. Exhibitions and the Oxford Arts Club 6. The War Years 1939-1945 7. The Final Years 8. Photographs and Illustrations 9. Postscript 10. Acknowledgements 11. Abbreviations 12. Index

1 CHILDHOOD – FROM HALIFAX TO NORWICH

Percy Moore Turner was born on 6 July 1877 in Halifax in Yorkshire. During the mid-Victorian era, the population of the borough of Halifax more than doubled, rising from 25,159 in 1851 to 65,510 in 1871, initially due to the expansion of the local textile industries.1 As the textile industries declined in the second half of the nineteenth century, Halifax’s population growth was sustained by an increasing diversification whereby Halifax earned a reputation as ‘a town of 100 trades’.2 These included confectionery, construction, engineering, cable and machine tool-making industries.3

Percy’s Father, Thomas Turner (1845–1906)

Percy’s father, Thomas Turner (1845–1906), was listed by profession in the censuses for England as ‘a hosier’ (1861), ‘a master hosier employing 4 girls and boys’ (1871), ‘hosier’ (1881), ‘living on his own means’ (1891) and ‘a retired hosier and haberdasher’ (1901).4 In the Halifax local trade directories, he is listed as ‘a hosier at 13 Old Market’ (1867),5 ‘a hosier at 14 and 16 Old Market’ (1871),6 under the category of hosiers and glovers at 14 Old Market (1887),7 and as ‘a hosier at 14 and 16 Old Market’ (1889).8 In the Turner Family Papers there is a brass printing plate illustrating Thomas Turner’s shop at 12 and 13 Old Market, which was a ladies’ outfitter, Berlin wool and fancy repository, hosier, glover and shirt maker. It has not been possible to identify when Thomas Turner opened his shop but it was sold in 1889 when Thomas Turner and his family moved to Norwich.9.

Thomas Turner’s shop at 12 and 13 Old Market

Percy’s mother was Sarah Jane Robotham (1844–1928). Her father was a hosier and haberdasher.10 Sarah married Thomas on 2 February 1870 at St John the Baptist Church in Halifax.11 On 13 March 1879, fifteen months after Percy was born, Sarah gave birth to his sister Maud Ethel Moore Turner.12 The family lived at 14 and 16 Old Market, Halifax until 1889.13

Sarah Jane Robotham (1844–1928), Percy’s mother

Percy and Maud Ethel Moore Turner, taken in Halifax, 11 June 1881 (Thomas Turner’s birthday)

Percy and Maud Ethel Moore Turner, taken in Halifax, 11 June 1883

Percy and Maud Ethel Moore Turner, taken in Halifax, 11 June 1885

The Turner family at 42 Mill Road, Norwich

Thomas Turner was advised by his doctor to move to a drier climate in 1889, so he retired and the family moved to 42 Mill Hill Road, Norwich. Thomas brought his extensive art collection with him, which included a fine collection of old master line engravings, chiefly after Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, inherited from his brother, who had died young. He also owned a few good oil paintings, one by the School of Titian, a William Hogarth, a Salvator Rosa and an Abraham or Jacob van Strij. He contined to add to his collection while living in Norwich and gradually acquired numerous minor examples of the Norwich School. The Turner family at 42 Mill Road, Norwich Percy frequently accompanied his father when making his purchases. All of this hugely impressed Percy as a boy.14 On 25 February 1895 Thomas Turner sold engravings and mezzotints through Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge in London in twenty-nine lots.15 In 1897, Thomas instructed Maddison, Miles and Maddison of Great Yarmouth to sell a number of oil paintings, drawings, etchings, coins, books, microscope and musical instruments as he was considering making structural alterations to his house. There were 102 lots of oil paintings, including paintings by J.M.W. Turner, Rubens, Van Dyck, the Norwich School, Rembrandt, Paolo Veronese and Thomas Gainsborough, and seventeen lots of watercolours, including those by Gainsborough, J.M.W. Turner and Sell Cotman. Out of twenty-five lots of drawings, seven were from the collection of the late Reverend E.T. Dawell, including those by John Crome and John Sell Cotman. Engravings by Edwin Henry Landseer, Adriaen van Ostade, Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds were included in the forty-...