Gill Hedleyback

Writer and Curator

Arthur Jeffress

Gill Hedley speaking at Site Gallery, Sheffield, in 2006

Biography of Arthur Jeffress, 1905-1961

Gill has written a biography of Arthur Tilden Jeffress, a collector and dealer who bequeathed his art collection to Southampton City Art Gallery and The Tate on his tragically early suicide in 1961. is a writer, an independent curator and a consultant on contemporary visual arts.

Arthur Jeffress in his gondola on the grand canal

JUMP TO NEW ARTHUR JEFFRESS WEBSITE

This new biography includes major new research based on letters, jourrnals, reminiscences and photo albums. Here is a photograph of Jeffress as the Empress Catherine in a play while at Cambridge in the 1920s, and a portrait painted by Graham Sutherland at Jeffress's home in Venice, 1955.

Arthur Jeffress in character as Catherine the Great, wearing crowns and tiaras

Arthur Jeffress in character as Catherine the Great
copyright National Portrait Gallery

the Graham Sutherland portrait of Arthur Jeffress

Graham Sutherland Portrait of Arthur Jeffress
copyright Southampton City Art Gallery


Gill gave a paper at the Art Historians’ Conference at Reading in April 2013 as part of the session: London’s Commercial Art Market: Art on sale and display from 1920 to now. The paper was entitled Arthur Jeffress for Painting. See also a copy of the gallery's Manifesto.

Any new information relating to Arthur Jeffress's life would be gratefully received. Please contact using the e-mail link on the home page.

Erica Brausen (1908-1982) founded the Hanover Gallery in 1947 with Arthur Jeffress as a backer and co-director until they fell out in 1953 after which Arthur Jeffress opened his own gallery and took Robert Melville from the Hanover with him to run it. She is the subject of the following memoir. There is a page of photographs of Erica Brausen, with thanks to Jean-Yves Mock.

Jean-Yves Mock replaced Robert Melville at the Hanover Gallery and worked closely with Erica Brausen until her death. He wrote the following memoir to set the record straight. He has approved the translation by Gill Hedley from French into English.

Gill has written an entry on Robert Melville for the DNB (the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Robert was an art critic, and managed the Hanover Gallery and later the Arthur Jeffress Gallery.