The Art Market and the Museum: Institutional Collecting, Display and Patronage since the Mid-Nineteenth Century

by Frances Fowle (Editor), Kathryn Brown (Editor), MaryKate Cleary (Editor)

Overview

This book considers how art market stakeholders, including art dealers, collectors and agents, have shaped museum collections and affected exhibition practices since the mid-nineteenth century. Based on new archival research and data analysis, it explores the role of dealers not only in selling directly to museums, but in influencing museum collecting priorities, as well as potential donors. It also examines the important but hitherto overlooked contribution of the female curator-agent.

The book is divided into three sections, which address the relationship between art dealers and museums, women as art agents and influencers, and the strategies of entrepreneurial collectors. Featuring contributions from a wide range of international specialists in the market for decorative arts and antiquities, as well as European modernism, The Art Market and the Museum explores the origins and development of the modern Western art market and the global art networks that operated not only in Paris, London and New York, but in cities such as Glasgow, Vienna, Melbourne and Kansas City. It is perfect reading for scholars and researchers on the history of the art market, museum studies and art history more broadly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350385351
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/10/2025
Series:	Contextualizing Art Markets
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.45(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Frances Fowle is Emeritus Professor of 19th-Century Art, University of Edinburgh, UK. For over twenty years she was Senior Curator of French Art, National Galleries of Scotland, UK. She is a co-founder/ex-board member of TIAMSA. Her previous publications include Van Gogh's Twin: The Scottish Art Dealer Alexander Reid (2010) and Globalising Impressionism: Reception, Translation and Transnationalism (2020).

Kathryn Brown is Reader in Art Histories, Markets and Digital Heritage at Loughborough University, UK. Her books include Women Readers in French Painting 1870–1890 (2012), Matisse's Poets: Critical Performance in the Artist's Book (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Henri Matisse (2021). She is the series editor of Contextualizing Art Markets (Bloomsbury).

MaryKate Cleary is Curator of Provenance at the Princeton University Art Museum, USA. She specialises in provenance research, the history of the art market, and legal and ethical issues of cultural heritage. She was previously Lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London; Collections Specialist at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Manager of Historic Claims and Provenance Research at the Art Loss Register.

Table of Contents

List of Plates
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Series Editor Preface
Introduction, Frances Fowle and MaryKate Cleary

Part One: The Museum and The Art Dealer
1. Trusted Agents of the Government: British Dealers and the Museum, 1850-1900, Diana Davis (Independent Researcher, UK)
2. Siegfried Bing and the Fin-de-Siècle Market for Japanese Art: Dealers, Collectors & Museums, Tsuksasa Kodera (Osaka University, Japan)
3. Dubious Dealings and issues of connoisseurship: David Croal Thomson and the National Galleries of Scotland, Frances Fowle (University of Edinburgh, UK)
4. Etienne Bignou's Matisse and Picasso Exhibitions of the 1930s: The Gallery Show as Prototype for Museum Retrospectives, Christel H. Force (Independent Researcher, USA & France)
5. The Middle Men of Art: Knoedler's and the building of the great American collections, Anne Helmreich (Smithsonian Institution, USA), Sandra van Ginhoven (Getty Research Institute, USA), DiAndra Reyes (Independent Researcher, USA), Kyllie King (Independant Researcher, Italy)

Part Two: Women as Art Agents and Influencers
6. From Executrix to Curator: Rosalind Birnie Philip and the Whistler Estate, Alicia Hughes (British Museum, UK)
Collection, 1903-1958
7. Our Woman in Cairo: Lucy Olcott Perkins as Agent for Cleveland Museum, Imogen Tedbury (National Gallery, UK)
8. A Seed of Desire: Effie Seachrest and Women Collectors in Kansas City, Mackenzie Mallon (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, USA)
9. Impermanent Bliss: Deaccessioning by MoMA and its Consequences, Irene Walsh (Independent Researcher, UK)

Part Three: The Entrepreneurial Collection and the Emergence of the Private Museum
10. Trade, Art Market and Museum: Alfred Chauchard's Legacy to the Louvre, Morgane Weinling (Louvre Museum, France)
11. Marjorie Merriweather Post's Hillwood and the Vision from a Private Collection to Public Museum, Rebecca Tilles (School of Jewellery Arts, France)
12. Filling in the Gaps of his Collection? A Reassessment of Sir William Burrell's Late Collecting Practice, 1944-1957, Isobel MacDonald (University College London, UK)
13. The Private Museum: Evolving Models of Collecting and the Interplay between Collectors and the Art Market, Georgina Walker (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Index

Editorial Reviews

A wide-ranging and thought-provoking study of the complex intersections between the art market and the museum, this volume highlights the significant role that the art market has played, and continues to play, in the development of the public art museum.” —Mark Westgarth, Professor of the History of the Art Market, University of Leeds, UK

“A supreme example of international, historical scholarship in art market studies at its best. An essential and fascinating read for anyone interested in the intricate and complex set of relationships between the commercial world of art, museums' collecting practices, philanthropy and gender.” —Marta Herrero, Head of Creative Industries Management and Reader in Creative Industries, University of York, UK

“This important volume demonstrates the many roles of dealers in the life of public institutions. With an impressive mix of global and chronological perspectives, it uncovers a realm of collaborations and transactions in which the boundaries of museum and market appear as strikingly porous.” —Tom Stammers, Reader in Cultural and Art History, the Courtauld Institute of Art, UK

“An accomplished and scholarly volume, noted for its geographical range and focus on the role of women in building museum collections. It will be a valuable resource, particularly for art market and museum studies.” —Simon Kelly, Curator and Head of Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, USA

From the Publisher