Charles Dowdeswell
Date of birth: 1856?
Date of death: 1921
Category: print dealer
Identity:
Charles Dowdeswell was an art dealer and the son of the art dealer C. W. Dowdeswell. He had a brother, Walter and a sister, Eleanor. He married Emily Hoggett at St Pancras Church, London, on 7 April 1897.
Life:
In 1865 Charles Dowdeswell's father had a framemaking and print shop at 36 Chancery Lane, London, and in 1878 he opened a gallery at 133 New Bond Street. Later he moved to 160 New Bond Street. Both Charles and Walter worked in their father's gallery. Charles was in correspondence with Whistler concerning his father's art dealing business in the 1880s.
The Dowdeswell Galleries published prints by artists such as Felix Braquemond, Jules Jacquemart, Charles Méryon, Seymour Haden and Whistler. In 1886 he published A Set of Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') for Whistler.
A large number of Whistler paintings also passed through C. W. Dowdeswell's hands, including Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Grey: The Chinese Screen y051, Nocturne: The Solent y071, Arrangement in Yellow and Grey: Effie Deans y183. At Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879 C. W. Dowdeswell bought The Gold Scab y208, a satirical portrait of F. R. Leyland, for twelve guineas.
In May 1884 Whistler held a one man show, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', at the Dowdeswell Galleries at 133 New Bond Street. There were 61 oils, watercolours and pastels on view. Whistler designed the catalogue and the decoration, calling it an Arrangement in Fleshcolour and Grey. Although the exhibition was not a financial success, a second show was held in May 1886, An Arrangement in Brown and Gold, this time with 75 works on display.
Bibliography:
The Times, London, 9 April 1897, p. 1; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 ; MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 ; 'C. William Dowdeswell', The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, ed. L. Macy
