Lucy Wertheim

17 box files, 5 archive boxes, 2 bankers boxes. This collection has not yet been catalogued but a boxlist is available. (Ref LCW)

The archive comprises material created and collected by Wertheim in relation to her work as a collector, patron and gallerist. The majority of the material pertains to the exhibitions she organised and the artists she championed, who included notable figures such as Christopher Wood, Henry Moore, Basil Rákóczi, Phelan Gibb, Kenneth Hall and Frances Hodgkins. The archive includes extensive correspondence with artists, revealing much about the patron/artist relationship and providing an insight into creative processes, exhibition plans and personal lives. It also includes publicity material – in the form of albums of press cuttings – relating to the exhibitions she organised. Additional material, created by the Wertheim family, offers an insight into her collection, life and legacy.

The archive includes correspondence; press-cuttings; exhibition invitation cards; exhibition handlists; visitor books and photographs.

Lucy Carrington Wertheim (1883–1971) was a collector, patron and gallerist. She was a modernist with a distinct taste for primitive painting. Opening the Wertheim Gallery in London in 1930, and founding the Twenties Group of “English artists in their twenties” she played a vital role in fostering emerging British talent in the 1930s.