Andrew Edmunds (1943–2022)

All of us at the Centre were saddened to hear of the recent death of Andrew Edmunds. As well as enjoying great renown as a restaurateur, Andrew was one of this country’s best print dealers, with a particular expertise in the field of Georgian satire. He was also a generous lender to exhibitions: the recent Hogarth and Europe exhibition at Tate Britain, for example, benefited enormously from his extensive loan of prints, as did earlier Tate exhibitions on both Hogarth (2007) and James Gillray (2001). We at the PMC are also indebted to Andrew for his generosity in allowing many of his finest and rarest works to be reproduced in Tim Clayton’s critical biography of Gillray, which we will be publishing later this autumn.

Sprightly and sharp-witted, with a permanent twinkle in his eye, Andrew was always a pleasure to meet, whether at a private view, in the bowels of his lovely old print shop, or at his elegantly scuffed restaurant. I have a special reason to be grateful to him, having worked as a waiter at his restaurant while writing my PhD (which dealt, appropriately enough, with Hogarth and the wider realm of graphic satire in eighteenth-century London). Andrew was kind then, and kind thereafter. He will be sorely missed.

Thumbnail photo credit: Danny Elwes