History menu >

Victorian Art and Artists

The McCulloch Collection - overview and menu

Overview

This section of our website began with just a few pictures of unknown artists or dealers, but has expanded considerably, in recent years, following contributions from Professor Caroline Dakers in London, family historian David Wright in Australia, researcher Sorcha Ni Foghluda, and McCulloch's biographer, Lawrence McCallum, in New Zealand, all of whose help has been invaluable.

It now provides an on-line record of the greater part of the large collection of drawings, paintings and sculptures purchased by the art collector George McCulloch (1848 - 1907) that had been displayed in his home at 184 Queens Gate in London.

Some the works had been loaned to exhibitions and, following McCulloch's death, and courtesy of his widow, the majority of the collection was displayed at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition of 1909 at London.

The collection was largely disposed at sales in 1909, 1911, and 1913 at the auction rooms of Christie, Manson and Woods in London.

Our record is mainly in the form of an 'Index', principally based upon the RA Exhibition Catalogue of 1909, the index of a Special Edition of the Art Journal of 1909 which was devoted to McCulloch's collection, and the Christie's sale catalogue of 1913; but you will also find links to images of some, but not all, of the works, and information about a few of the dealers who bought pictures. These dealers were middle-men who would have quickly sold the paintings on to clients, so it is not always clear where the paintings and sculptures are now - if you know please do let us know.

Menu

Here is a list of the pages:

(you can alternatively click the menu button at the top of the page for an abbreviated list)

Victorian Art and Artists (1) - photos possibly of artists and dealers in McCulloch's home

Victorian Art and Artists (2) - more photos

Victorian Art and Artists (3) - extracts from the Art Journal showing interior of McCulloch's home

Transcription of the RA catalogue index of the McCulloch Collection of Modern Art  - (archived page)

Index of the McCulloch Collection of Modern Art, with additional links to some of the paintings and artists - (archived page)

Catalogue index of the McCulloch Collection of Modern Art, with additional links to some of the paintings and artists, and cross reference to Special Edition of Art Journal

Attribution of painting of George McCulloch to Barnett Samuel Marks

Disposal

Sale of the McCulloch Collection of Modern Art in 1913 - mainly transcription of reports of the sale in The Time newspaper, and about the dealers

Paintings sold to Australian galleries in 1913

Master index - sale of the McCulloch Collection of Modern Art incorporating information from the sales at Christies of 1909, 1911 and 1913 and reports in the Times newspaper.

RA catalogue index of the 'McCulloch Collection of Modern Art' cross referenced with buyers and prices

Bibliography

Review of books about George McCulloch and Broken Hill

Review of book The McCulloch Collection, by Lawrence Robert McCallum

The Glasgow Boys (a book review)

Other British Art

Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions

While researching the McCulloch Collection we came across a website containing a history of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions from when they started in 1769 to the 250th exhibition in 2018.

If you are mildy interested in British Art you might, like us, find this an interesting resource to dip into.

The full title of the online publication is The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle 1769 - 2018 and can be found at www.chronicle250.com

Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

This enormous body of work appears to have been funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art which is an educational charity committed to promoting original, world-class research into the history of British art and architecture of all periods. The Centre collaborates closely with the Yale Center for British Art, and is part of Yale University.

The founder was American philanthropist Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999) who in the 1950s, as George McCulloch had done earlier, began to amass his own even larger collection of British Art which he gifted to Yale University in 1966.

References

1. Catalogue of the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1909
2. Special Edition of Art Journal 1909
3. Christie's sale catalogue
4. Private communication, Wright D
5. Communication, Dakers C, February 2015
6. Private communications, McCallum LR
   

Back to top

This series of articles was first published on our old website 123-mcc.com

Please email suggestions for amendments to this page to the webmaster