The Grafton Galleries, often referred to as the Grafton Gallery, was an art gallery in Mayfair, London. The French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel showed the first major exhibition in Britain of Impressionist paintings there in 1905. Roger Fry's two famous exhibitions of Post-Impressionist works in 1910 and 1912 were both held at the gallery.
The date of foundation of the Grafton Galleries is not certain; some sources give 1873, when it had an address in Liverpool. The gallery was incorporated in London on 16 June 1891, and opened in February 1893, first at 8 Grafton Street, and later, from 1896, in Bond Street. The manager was Francis Gerard Prange. From 1905 or earlier, Roger Fry was an advisor to the gallery; he asked for advice from William Rothenstein on exhibition content.
The first London exhibition of the Grafton Galleries opened on 18 February 1893; the last was probably in 1930. The most celebrated exhibitions held there were Paul Durand-Ruel's Impressionist show of 1905, and the two Post-Impressionist exhibitions put on by Roger Fry: Manet and the Post-Impressionists in 1910–11, and the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition of 1912.
Exhibitions held at the gallery include:
1893, February: First exhibition, consisting of paintings and sculpture, by British and foreign artists of the present day1893, May: Second exhibition, consisting of the third exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters, by British and foreign artists of the present day1893, November–December: First exhibition of French artists in decorative art1894: Fair women1894: Fourth exhibition of Grafton Gallery, including a retrospective exhibition of work of Albert Moore, and a general collection of British and foreign works1895: Winter exhibition of the works of old Scottish portrait painters, with a selection of the pictures of John Thomson of Duddingston and a collection of old Scottish silver and weapons1895: Fair children1896: Sixth exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters1896: Pictures representing the loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition to the North Pole, painted by Julius von Payer1896, January–March: A loan collection of modern pictures, chiefly of the Barbizon and Dutch schools, with a collection of 200 original drawings by Paul Renouard and others1896, April: Charles Sedelmeyer's fine art exhibition1897: Exhibition of dramatic and musical art1897: Society of Miniaturists exhibition1897: Seventh exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters1897: Summer exhibition of members' work, Society of Miniaturists1897, January: Exhibition of the works of Ford Madox Brown1898: Catalogue of pictures which belong to 68, Princes Gate1898: Collection of pictures by Old Masters formed by David Sellar1898: The Gentlewoman photographic competition, exhibition of prize pictures1898: Eighth exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters1898, April–May: Exhibition of Australian art in London1898, June: Bibliotheca Lindesiana, manuscripts and examples of metal and ivory bindings exhibited to the Bibliographical Society1899: Siegfried Bing, 1838–19051899, January: Vasily Vereshchagin exhibition: Napoleon I, 1812, from a sketch made by an eye-witness1899, October–December: Exhibition of modern French art, with a representative collection of the artistic work of Louis Tiffany, of New York1900: Fourteenth exhibition of the Ridley Art Club1900: Ninth exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters1900, summer: Exhibition of a special selection from the works by George Romney, including a few portraits of Emma, Lady Hamilton by other artists1900, December: Exhibition of a second selection from the works by George Romney, including a few portraits of Emma, Lady Hamilton, by other artists1901: Exhibition of South African pictures by R. Gwelo Goodman1901: Exhibition of works by Willy Wolf Rudinoff, including examples in oil, water-colour, etching, and dry point1901, March–April: Women's International Art Club, second annual exhibition1902: Exhibition of the works of Emil Fuchs1902: Works by the late Archibald Stuart Wortley, founder and president of the Society of Portrait Painters1902: Portraits by the late Benjamin Constant, and one hundred pencil studies by Violet Manners, Marchioness of Granby1902, March: Women's International Art Club, third annual exhibition1902, November: Works by Emil Fuchs, the designer of the Coronation medal and the King's head on the new postage stamps1903, January: Women's International Art Club, fourth annual exhibition1903, March: Modern Celtic ornament as applied to gold and silver plate, pewter, jewelry, carpets, garden pottery, sundials, etc.1903, May: Bijoux et objets d'art exposés par M. René Lalique1903, May–July: French masters exhibition1904, January: Women's International Art Club, fifth annual exhibition1904, December: Women's International Art Club, sixth annual exhibition1905, January-February: pictures by Eugène Boudin, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, exhibited by Paul Durand-Ruel and Sons, from Paris1905: Annual exhibition of the Society of Miniaturists1905, March: Exhibition by Emil Fuchs1905, May: Exhibition of a selection from the collection of the late James Staats Forbes, including a few works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Narcisse Virgilio Díaz, Jean-François Millet, Jozef Israëls, Anton Mauve, one of the Maris brothers, and other artists1905, December: Women's International Art Club, seventh annual exhibition1906: Munich fine art exhibition1906, January: Eighth exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society1906, July: International Congress of Architects in London1906, December: Women's International Art Club, eighth annual exhibition1907: Exhibition of paintings and sketches of the Polar regions by Alexander Borissoff of St. Petersburg1907: Exhibition of works by members of the Société des aquarellistes français and the Société des peintres de marine1907, November–December: Special exhibition, United Arts Club1908, January: Women's International Art Club, ninth annual exhibition1908, February–March: Fourth exhibition of the United Arts Club1908, April: Indian princes, Kew Gardens, Italian landscapes, and other pictures1908, May–July: Exhibition of paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida1908, October–November: The Franco-British Art Association, joint exhibition of Frits Thaulow, Hippolyte Camille Delpy, Arsène Chabanian1908, December: Georges Petit of Paris, second annual London salon of original etchings1908: Pictures and drawings in the National Loan Exhibition in aid of the National Gallery Funds1910, April-May: Tenth Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers1910, May-June: Exhibition of Fair Women; International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers1910: Manet and the Post-Impressionists1911, April-May: Eleventh Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers1911, June-July: A Century of Art, 1810-19101912, April-May: Twelfth Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers1912, June-July: Exhibition of Fair Children1912: Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition1921, April-May: The Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers; Twenty-seventh London Exhibition1922, April-May: The Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers; Twenty-eighth London ExhibitionOther artists who exhibited at the gallery include Frank Brangwyn, John Lavery, William Orpen, Christopher Nevinson, Ben Nicholson, Glyn Philpot, William Bruce Ellis Ranken, Frank Salisbury, John Singer Sargent, James Jebusa Shannon and George Fiddes Watt.
The Ridley Art Club held its annual exhibition at the gallery from 1897 to 1919; the Society of Miniaturists held its annual exhibition there from 1905 until 1926; and the Allied Artists' Association held its annual show in the Grafton Galleries from 1916 to 1920.
