{{short description|British art gallery}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} The '''Chenil Gallery''' (often referred to as the '''Chenil Galleries''', or '''New Chenil Galleries''') was a British art gallery and sometime-music studio in Chelsea, London between 1905 and 1927, and later the location of various businesses referencing this early use.
==History== Located at 181–183 King's Road, the gallery was founded in 1905 by Jack Knewstub,<ref name="Oxford Art">Anne Helmreich and Ysanne Holt, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856491 Marketing Bohemia: The Chenil Gallery in Chelsea, 1905-1926]", ''Oxford Art Journal'' (2010), Vol. 33, No. 1, p. 43-61.</ref><ref name="NPG"/> who had previously been an administrator of the Chelsea School of Art.<ref name="Helmreich">{{cite journal |last1=Helmreich |first1=Anne |last2=Holt |first2=Ysanne |title=Marketing Bohemia: The Chenil Gallery in Chelsea, 1905-1926 |journal=Oxford Art Journal |date=2010 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=43–61 |doi=10.1093/oxartj/kcq003 |jstor=40856491 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856491 |issn=0142-6540|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The gallery, with two exhibition rooms, shared its building with Charles Chenil & Co Ltd., a seller of art supplies and picture frames.<ref name="NPG">{{cite web |title=British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950 - C - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-suppliers/c/#CH |website=www.npg.org.uk}}</ref> In 1927, Knewstub declared bankruptcy and closed the gallery;<ref name="Bowdoin" /><ref name=AZART/> the Chenil name continued to be used in association with various exhibitions until the 1950s.<ref name=AZART/>
During its lifetime, the gallery was one of group of galleries "favoured by the Camden Town Group artists",<ref name="Helmreich"/> and was recognized for its exhibitions of British contemporary artists, including Augustus John, William Orpen, David Bomberg, Derwent Lees and Eric Gill.<ref name="Bowdoin">{{cite web |title=Chenil Gallery |url=https://learn.bowdoin.edu/fletcher/london-gallery/data/pages/as535.html |website=learn.bowdoin.edu}}</ref> Augustus John, who had a studio in the Chenil's garden, exhibited his work continuously at the gallery.<ref name=AZART>{{cite book |last1=Flynn |first1=Tom |title=The A-Z of the International Art Market: The Essential Guide to Customs, Conventions and Practice |date=3 November 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4729-3636-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SvNPDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Chenil+Gallery%22&pg=PT64 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=John |first1=Gwen |last2=Britain (Gallery) |first2=Tate |last3=GB) |first3=National museum (Cardiff |title=Gwen John and Augustus John |date=7 December 2004 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=978-1-85437-543-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5FPAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Chenil+Gallery%22+augustus+john+garden |language=en}}</ref> However, the studio which began as a countercultural "bohemian" enterprise was unable to compete with studios attracting younger artists, and failed in efforts to reinvent itself along more commercial lines.<ref name="Oxford Art"/> The ultimate failure of the enterprise bankrupted Knewstub, who some years later was seen by a former gallery patron peddling vegetables from a cart.<ref name="Oxford Art"/>
The record company Decca made its earliest recordings at the Chenil Gallery, and discographer Brian Rust noted that "the records made there invariably had a constricted sound that reminded listeners of the old acoustic method of recording".<ref>Brian Rust, ''Brian Rust's Guide to Discography'' (1980), p. 67.</ref>
As of the mid-2000s, the building still stood and the gallery location had become "more of a shopping arcade" still operating under the Chenil Galleries name, with author Suzy Gershman describing it as being "known as a good place for antique medical instruments, as well as 17th- and 18th-century paintings and smaller items", as well as costume jewelry.<ref>Suzy Gershman, ''Suzy Gershman's Born to Shop London: The Ultimate Guide for People Who Love to Shop'' (2008), p. 255.</ref>
==Selected exhibitions== In 1911, James Dickson Innes had a two-man exhibition with Eric Gill at the Chenil Gallery, London: "Sculptures by Mr Eric Gill and Landscapes by Mr J. D. Innes".<ref name="Bowdoin" /> Innes had a second exhibition at the Chenil in 1913, shortly before his unexpected death.<ref name="WalesAertsInnes">{{cite web |last1=Bowen |first1=Keith |title=Sacred Mountain: the Last Years of Artist J.D. Innes |url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/sacred-mountain-the-last-years-of-artist-j-d-innes/ |website=Wales Arts Review |date=24 April 2014}}</ref>
In 1914, the gallery exhibited David Bomberg's The Mud Bath as part of a solo exhibition of his work. A 1964 Tate Gallery report noted that the painting was "hung outside the Gallery premises that it may have every advantage of lighting and space".<ref name="TateMudRoom">{{cite web |last1=Gallery |first1=Tate |title=The Tate Gallery Report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqYhM5RQQqQC&q=%22Chenil+Gallery%22+mud+room++David+Bomberg. |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |language=en |date=1964}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallery |first1=Tate |title=Paint and Purpose: A Study of Technique in British Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpzqAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Chenil+Gallery%22+mud+room++David+Bomberg. |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |language=en |date=September 1999|isbn=9781854372482 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bostridge |first1=Mark |title=The Fateful Year: England 1914 |date=2 January 2014 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-196223-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JSm8AAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Chenil+Gallery%22+recognized+as&pg=PT178 |language=en}}</ref>
Henry Tonks persuaded his former pupil, Edna Clarke Hall, to hold a one-woman show at the gallery in 1914. This show was a critical success, with one review describing her as a 'sensitive and expressive draughtswoman who reaches a masterly plane' and admiring her 'individual and instinctive' use of colour.<ref>J. H. Collins Baker for ''The Saturday Review'', 14 April 1914. Quoted by Alison Thomas, 'Hall, Edna Clarke, Lady Clarke Hall (1879–1979)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64272 accessed 3 Feb 2012].</ref> Again in 1914, Augustus John facilitated sculptor Frank Dobson being able to stage a one-man show at the gallery.<ref name="ODNB44">{{cite book|editor=HCG Matthew & Brian Harrison|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Vol 44 (Phelps-Poston)|isbn=0-19-861394-6}}</ref>
In 1922 Leon Underwood had his first solo exhibition at the gallery.<ref name="BuckmanVol2">{{cite book|author=David Buckman|publisher=Art Dictionaries Ltd|year=2006|title=Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z |isbn=0-953260-95-X}}</ref> William Roberts, who had been an official war artist, had his first one-man show at the Chenil Gallery in 1923.<ref>{{cite web |title='The Port of London', William Roberts, c.1920–4 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/roberts-the-port-of-london-t05761 |website=Tate}}</ref>
Augustus John's sister, Gwen John, had the only solo exhibition in her lifetime at the gallery in 1926.<ref>Sanford Schwartz, "To Be a Pilgrim", ''The New York Review of Books'' (November 29, 2001), p. 36.</ref> Alexander Stuart-Hill displayed at the gallery in 1927.<ref>''The Times'', 25 January 1927, p. 10.</ref>
==Studio recordings== In 1926, John Barbirolli was invited to conduct a new ensemble at the gallery,<ref>"Our London Correspondence", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 25 May 1926, p. 6.</ref> initially called the "Chenil Chamber Orchestra" but later renamed "John Barbirolli's Chamber Orchestra".<ref>"Wireless Notes and Programmes", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 7 June 1928, p. 12.</ref> Barbirolli's concerts at the gallery impressed Frederic Austin, director of the British National Opera Company (BNOC), who in the same year invited him to conduct some performances with the company.<ref name=blyth>Blyth, Alan. "Sir John Barbirolli talks to Alan Blyth", ''The Gramophone'', December 1969, p. 34.</ref>
In 1930, jazz musician Spike Hughes first formed his own group and used the gallery as a recording venue for its music, in April of that year persuading the American musician Jimmy Dorsey to visit Chelsea for some sessions whilst he was in the UK.<ref name="Godbolt">Godbolt, Jim. ''A History of Jazz in Britain (1919-1950)'', (1984).</ref> Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded there in July 1933, including the track ''Hyde Park''.<ref>[https://www.discogs.com/release/3193802-Duke-Ellington-And-His-Orchestra-Hyde-Park-Chicago Odeon 284058, Discogs]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://learn.bowdoin.edu/fletcher/london-gallery/data/pages/as535.html London Gallery Project page on the Chenil Gallery]
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Category:1906 establishments in England Category:Contemporary art galleries in England Category:King's Road, Chelsea, London