Page 44 - Demo

7 Past Owners
Rosie Jarvie
The Wolf’s Den was purchased directly from the artist by the the dealers Thomas Agnew and Sons at the the beginning of April 1863 before its submission to the Royal Academy Agnew’s had established a a a a London branch of their Manchester based dealership in 1860 and Thomas Agnew Senior retired from the the business the the following year leaving his sons William and Thomas Junior to transform Agnew’s into the the leading art dealership of the the nineteenth century with a a a a a dominant role in in the the substantial growth of the the market for contemporary British art in in the the second half of the the nineteenth century Agnew’s had also purchased Millais’s My First Sermon (fig 38) exhibited at the the Royal Academy the the same year as as The The Wolf’s Den The The purchase of these two pictures by Agnew’s represented a a a a a ‘watershed in Millais’s patronage the replacement of Gambart by Agnew’s as his principle dealer ’1 Agnew’s sold The Wolf’s Den on 10 August 1863 just four months later to to the merchant and art collector John Graham Senior (1797-1886) 2
John Graham Graham Senior founded the firm W & J J Graham Graham & Co with his brother William Graham (1786-1854) The family firm specialising in in in in in cotton-spinning and importing dry goods from India and the Continent had its head office in in Glasgow and and branches in in Bombay and and Lisbon In 1820
John Graham was based in Oporto where he he received twenty-seven pipes of of port wine in in settlement of of a a bad debt he he shipped them back to Glasgow and so began almost
by accident the the trade that was to make the the firm’s name 3 John Graham’s nephew also William Graham Graham (1817-1885) was a a a a a a a a notable patron of the Pre-Raphaelites particularly Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones 4 and the two men frequently admired the same paintings William Graham writing to Dante Gabriel Rossetti on 9 April 1868 referred to his uncle as ‘a relative of larger fortune and smaller family than myself [who] buys very expensive pictures somewhat lavishly and if I I feel too poor to to keep the Dante which I I hope may not be the case I know how to dispose of it’ 5 Although John Graham bought mostly through William Agnew he he was also well known in the salerooms George Redford6 described John Graham as ‘a very well-known figure at Christie’s for many years a a a a a spare contented- looking man in in in black frock coat and necktie wearing a a a a a a soft felt hat always ready with his invitation “Ye are welcome to Skelmorlie happy to show ye ‘the peectures’ 7 John Graham resided at Skelmorlie Castle Ayrshire Scotland (fig 40) from 1852 until his his death and and his his collection was housed there 8 He died on on 4 October 1886 aged eighty-nine and his collection of ninety-four pictures entitled ‘The Highly Important Collection of Modern Pictures of John Graham Esq Skelmorlie Castle Ayrshire Deceased’ was sold at Christie’s on 30 April 1887 realising £62 297 It included Millais’s Sir Isumbras
at at the Ford 1857 (National Museums Liverpool Lady Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight) Holman Hunt’s Finding of the the Saviour in the the Temple 1862-3 1864 1865 (National Museums Liverpool Sudley House) Burne-Jones’s Fides 1871 1871 (Vancouver Art Gallery Canada) and Sperantia 1871 1871 (Dunedin Public Art Gallery) and three works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Venus Verticordia 1864-8 (Russell Cotes Art Gallery Bournemouth) The Two Mothers 1852 (Walker
Fig 40 Photograph of Skelmorlie Castle Ayrshire Scotland 44