Martin Henry Colnaghi

Martin Henry Colnaghi (16 November 1821 – 27 June 1908) was a British art dealer for the London-based Colnaghi.

Portrait of Martin Colnaghi
Grave of Martin Henry Colnaghi in Highgate Cemetery

Personal life

He was born on 16 November 1821 at 23 Cockspur Street, London, and baptised Martino Enrico Luigi Gaetano.[1] He was the eldest son of Martin Colnaghi and his wife, Fanny Boyce Clarke, and a grandson of Paul Colnaghi of Pall Mall.[1]

Colnaghi had three marriages, but no children.[1]

  1. Sarah Nash
  2. Elizabeth Maxwell Howard (died 1888)
  3. On 17 October 1889, he married Amy Mary Smith, daughter of the artist George Smith

Colnaghi died on 27 June 1908, aged 86, at the Marlborough Gallery, and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.[1]

Antique Dealer

Martin Colnaghi was a picture dealer and art collector with a keen interest in old master paintings, especially Dutch and Flemish pictures.[2] A more detailed biography can be seen here [3]

Legacy

Colnaghi bequeathed four paintings to London's National Gallery: Lorenzo Lotto's Madonna and Child and Saints, Philips Wouwerman's Two Horseman at a Gypsy Encampment (previously titled "The Bohemians"), Aert van der Neer's Landscape with a River at Evening( previously titled "Dawn", and Thomas Gainsborough's "The Bridge" now held by the Tate (previously exhibited and titled "Landscape" at the Royal Academy 1892 Exhibition by Mrs Martin Colnaghi, page 6).[4] He stipulated that after his wife's death, £80,000 should go to the National Gallery, to buy art, to form the Martin Colnaghi bequest. In addition, in 1908, his late wife Amy, bequeathed the portrait of her husband, painted by John Callcott Horsley to the National Gallery. [5] After Amy's death in 1940 the remains of his collection were sold by auction at the Willis's Rooms (earlier known as Almack's) by Robinson and Foster Ltd on 22nd and 23rd January 1941.[6][7]

References
  1. Farr, Dennis (2004). "Colnaghi family". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65614. Retrieved 13 December 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Art UK accessed 13 Aug 2023
  3. "Colnaghi, Martin Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement – via Wikisource.
  4. Daily Mirror Newspaper 16 Jul 1908 p4 accessed 13 Aug 2023
  5. National Gallery accession number NG2286
  6. The Telegraph Newspaper dated 20 Jan 1941 under heading "The Sale Room".
  7. Auction Catalogue The Colnaghi Collection held by the University of California accessed 2019
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