Grosvenor Gallery
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Grosvenor was a rival to the Royal Academy, and displayed work by artists outside of the British mainstream, including Edward Burne-Jones and Walter Crane.
In May 1877, with the opening of the first exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery,"Days of Creation," the "Beguiling of Merlin," and the "Mirror of Venus" by Edward Burne-Jones were all shown. John Ruskin visited the gallery to see work by Burne-Jones. An exhibition of paintings by James McNeill Whistler was also on display. Ruskin's savage review of Whistler's work led to a famous libel case, brought by the artist against the critic. Whistler won a farthing in damages.
The case made the gallery famous as the home of the Aesthetic movement, which was satirised in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, with its oft-quoted line "greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery".
In 1888, after a disagreement with Lindsay, Comyns Carr and Hallé resigned from the gallery to found the rival New Gallery, capturing Burne-Jones and many of the Grosvenor Gallery's other artists. The break-up of his marriage, financial constraints and personal conflicts forced Lindsay out of the gallery, which was taken over by his estranged wife.
