William
Wadsworth Findlay began The Findlay Galleries
in 1870 in Kansas City, Missouri. During the late 1800's, Kansas City
was the "Gateway to the West" - the jumping-off point where people with
dreams of gold, cheap land. and the "American Dream" began their journey
into the New Frontier. The Findlay Art Gallery was born at this
unique time in America. Ranchers drove their cattle to market at the rail-head
stockyards in Kansas City to return home with furnishings, mirrors and
sometimes ... art from the gallery.
As
people from the East came to establish new homes, Kansas City grew and so did
the Findlays’ business. That era began the Findlay art tradition; W.W.'s sons,
grandsons, and great grandsons followed -- and today, great-great-great grand-children
continue the tradition.
At the turn of the century, 2nd generation Findlays
took a chance with two young artists -- Charles Russell and Frederic Remington,
now both considered as the best of the New West throughout the art world.
Today, the best museums in America, such as the Chicago Art Institute and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, show these paintings. Between
1935 and the early 1960's, the business, operated by 3rd generation Findlays,
expanded to Chicago, New York, and Paris.
Findlay Gallery- c. 1900
Peter
joined his father in 1959, and opened his own business in l972. Today, he works
with his son, Joshua, from a gallery in the Fuller Building at 57th street
and Madison in New York devoted to masterworks of the 19th and 20th centuries,
as well as contemporary artists.
William Wadsworth Findlay -
c. 1870
"The
world changes and so does business", Peter comments, "The art business
today is so ... different from when I started 40 years ago. High prices and
the influence of the auction galleries have made the trading market much tighter
and the public better informed. In a market where a mistake can be an expensive
one, the role of the dealer as advisor and 'eye' has become critical."
The
Peter Findlay Gallery specializes in important 19th and 20th Century
European paintings, sculptures, and prints. We buy and sell the work of artists
such as Degas, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Sisley,
Leger, Pissarro, Chagall, Boudin, Rouault,
Marquet, Nolde, Klee, Miro, Vlaminck and
Utrillo. The Gallery is proud of its reputation as one of the leading
galleries in the world representing impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern
masters.
Findlay Gallery- c. 1920
David Findlay (center left),
with his father and two brothers, c.1940
Findlay Gallery- c. 1940, 57th
&Madison, NYC
Since the gallery's move to it's present location on the 8th floor of the Fuller
Building on 57th street, we have begun to represent contemporary artists
as well as well
known
master
painters
and sculptors of the 19th, 20th and now 21st centuries. A simple and elegant
design, the space creates an atmosphere of comfort that is conducive to
the viewing of both painting and sculpture alike.
