Jane, Lady Abdy Papers

Jane, Lady Abdy was an art dealer and society hostess, active in the latter half of the twentieth century, who leveraged her social influence to highlight previously overlooked artists of the Belle Époque, and later of 19th century Denmark.

Abdy was born Jane Noble on May 24, 1934 in Leicester, England. After graduating from Oxford, she worked at a West End gallery where she met art collector Sir Robert Abdy, Fifth Baronet, whom she married in 1962. In 1963, they opened Ferrers Gallery, named after Sir Robert Abdy’s Cornwall estate.

At the gallery, Abdy showed a talent for reviving interest in forgotten artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. The gallery became known for successful exhibitions of works by Jules Chéret, Giovanni Boldini, and Paul-César Helleu, among others, and the 1964 show of paintings by Atkinson Grimshaw was praised for re-introducing a neglected British painter of the Victorian era. Abdy was soon organizing well-received shows highlighting other cultural figures of the turn-of-the-century, including paintings of Parisian society that inspired Marcel Proust’s novels, and works by and about Sarah Bernhardt, a subject Abdy returned to later in life. After the gallery closed, she continued to organize exhibitions. Her collection of Art Nouveau and Symbolist drawings and prints were shown at Thackrey and Robertson Gallery in San Francisco in 1976, and she presented prints by James Tissot at Lumley Cazalet in London in 1978.

She became well-known for the fashionable dinner parties she hosted, inviting members of the British aristocracy, politicians, artists, collectors, and curators. Building on these society connections, she opened the Bury Street Gallery in 1979, where she continued to buy, sell, and show 19th century French art. Her 1982 exhibition “The Souls,” was noted in the press for its evocation of the fin-de-siècle through its collection of works by artists from Britain, the U.S., and France. Abdy co-wrote the exhibition catalog with historian Charlotte Gere. She later broadened her repertoire to include Danish artists, introducing Vilhelm Hammershøi and Peter Ilsted to the international art markets.

She was known for her talent for strategic bidding, and recognized in the press as an influential art dealer. She went into private business after closing the Bury Street Gallery, and continued to host society gatherings that connected artists, aristocrats, politicians, and intellectuals well into her later years. Lady Abdy died on December 22, 2015.

Sources Consulted:

"Jane, Lady Abdy - obituary - Art dealer and society hostess who opened British eyes to the glories of 19th-century French art." Daily Telegraph, The/The Sunday Telegraph: Web Edition Articles (London, England), 12 Jan. 2016. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12095373/Jane-Lady-Abdy-obituary.html

"Jane, Lady Abdy - Obituaries Aristocratic art dealer who championed forgotten artists and was an expert on 19th-century Danish painters." Times, The (London, England), 01 ed., sec. Features, 28 Jan. 2016, p. 53. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jane-lady-abdy-678n0frl52l

Vickers, Hugo. “Jane, Lady Abdy, Belle of the London Art World,” Sotheby’s, November 28, 2016, https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/jane-lady-abdy-belle-of-the-london-art-world