Arthur Tooth & Sons gallery: at the heart of London’s art world

For more than 130 years, Arthur Tooth & Sons was one of London’s most influential commercial art galleries. From Victorian watercolours to modern British painting, the gallery evolved with changing tastes while helping to shape the art market itself. View Arthur Tooth & Sons at Skylona >

Beginnings in Haymarket

The business was founded in 1842 by Charles Tooth (1788–1868), a carver and framer who established the gallery for his son, Arthur Tooth (1828–1900). In 1866 it moved into an impressive purpose-built gallery at Haymarket and in the same year the gallery advertised its “First Annual Winter Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings” in The Times.

Watercolours — especially British examples — was core to the gallery’s identity for decades, although the firm also sold paintings, prints, ceramics, furniture, sculpture, and books.

A smart Victorian business

In its early years, Arthur Tooth & Sons specialised in works by 18th- and 19th-century British artists. By the 1880s, however, the gallery had broadened its focus to include contemporary art and occasional Old Master paintings.

Rather than relying only on famous masterpieces, the gallery built its success through a steady supply of attractive, marketable works by popular living artists. Many of these artists were members of the Royal Academy or other respected institutions, while others came from across Europe.

The gallery also acted as promoter and publisher. It commissioned artworks and reproduced them as photogravures — high-quality printed images that allowed collectors to own affordable versions of popular paintings. Arthur Tooth became especially successful in this field, dominating the market for reproductions of Pre-Raphaelite and related works.

Its clientele was equally impressive. Among them was American industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who bought works through the gallery, by artists including J. M. W. Turner and Rembrandt. Frick’s extensive collection of old master paintings and fine furniture formed New York’s Frick Collection art museum.

An international presence

By the early 20th century, the firm had expanded abroad. In 1906 it was operating branches in both New York and Paris, with the New York gallery occupying addresses on Fifth Avenue. Although the New York branch closed in 1924, the business remained internationally connected.

Arthur Tooth & Sons also collaborated on acquisitions with some of the era’s leading dealers, including Thomas Agnew & Sons, M. Knoedler & Co., and P. & D. Colnaghi.

The Dudley Tooth years

A new chapter began in the mid-1920s, when Charles’s great-grandson Dudley Tooth (1896–1972) took charge of the family business. He modernised the gallery’s approach, regularly staging solo exhibitions for represented artists and helping to build long-term careers, rather than simply selling individual works.

Under Dudley’s leadership, the gallery embraced modern British and international art. Artists associated with the gallery included Augustus John, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Stanley Spencer.

After the Second World War, the programme widened further, featuring a vast array of artists such as Howard Hodgkin, Jean Dubuffet, Allen Jones, William Turnbull, Antonio Tàpies and Richard Long. Works once owned by Dudley Tooth also later revealed his interest in figures such as Tristram Hillier and André Derain.

Over the years, the gallery operated from several prestigious London addresses, including Haymarket, New Bond Street, and Bruton Street.

Legacy and closure

Arthur Tooth & Sons remained in family hands until Dudley Tooth’s death in 1972, closing a few short years later after more than a century in business. Historically, galleries like Arthur Tooth & Sons relied on personal connections between proprietors and artists. So it’s likely that Dudley’s passing – and the lack of a family heir in a position to take on the business – ended decades of continuity, ultimately making the gallery unsustainable.  

Today, its records survive in major institutions. Catalogues and archives are held by the National Art Library, the Getty Research Institute, and the Tate Archive, preserving the story of a gallery that moved with the times — from Victorian academic art and print publishing to the promotion of modern masters.

Arthur Tooth & Sons was a bridge between generations of collectors and artists, helping define the changing face of the London art market from the 19th century into the modern age, creating a model for many other galleries.

At Skylona we hold many Arthur Tooth & Sons exhibition catalogues, primarily covering the gallery’s final 20 years in London.