The Carroll Carstairs Gallery (c. 1923 - December 1948 - January 1949) and the Carstairs Gallery (1949 -1962) operated in New York.
The activities of both Carroll Carstairs Gallery and the Carstairs Gallery and its trade predominantly to its US Collector client base are of great interest to the Private and Institutional collections that have acquired or received artworks that have passed through the hands of this gallery.
The research related to this gallery was prompted the lack of gallery administration records held by any archive and the concerns surrounding accurate acquisition details, particularly of artworks traded by the gallery after 1933. Many institutions and private collectors are seeking answers to early provenance questions. The majority of the artworks participating in the project have unknown provenance from the time before the Gallery traded the artworks.
(above) Carroll Carstairs Gallery & Carstairs Gallery Variant Label Types 1930's - 1950's
The project is interested in and requests (when identified) the participation of every artwork known to have been traded by both the Carroll Carstairs Gallery and Carstairs Gallery in order to re-constitute the gallery’s stock records and stock mergers as fully as possible.
The more data types fed into the project the more precisely statements can be made to the owners of the artworks. When this data is analysed contextually it is allowing for the first time to pin point when the artworks came into the stock of the gallery and from where it was sourced.
Recorded / published provenance, literature, exhibition and public sales information
Scans or photographs of the front of the artwork
Scans or photographs of complete verso markings of artworks
Sales recorded by other dealers that sold or bought from Carstairs considered part of the 'Carstairs Network'
Co-shared stock partly owned by Carstairs.
Carroll Carstairs / Carstairs Gallery Photographic records.
Correspondences between Carroll Carstairs Gallery / Carstairs Gallery & external dealers & collectors.
Exhibition catalogue and other print media data
The data held in this project is considered highly sensitive and therefore will not be publicly published.
Information on what the data reveals related to particular artworks will be released to the parties who have a direct interest in specific artworks.
So far the project would like to thank the participation of the following Institutional and Private Collections:
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Bonham's Skinner Inc., Boston Institute of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Buehrle Foundation, Christie's, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dorotheum Vienna, Hermitage Fine Art, Getty Research Institute, Kunstmuseum Bern, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MOMA, National Museum of Western Art Japan, National Gallery of Art Washington, RISD, Saint Louis Art Museum, Sotheby's, Sporting Art Auction, The Clark Institute, those collectors who wished to remain anonymous and a variety of Art Dealer Archives; without you all this project would not have been possible to develop.
We look forward to providing further information on this project as it continues to unfold.
If you are a holder of an artwork or are interested in acquiring an artwork that has a Carstairs Gallery connection (Sale or Exhibition) you would be welcome to contact the project for further information. Using the form below you can submit data to the project.
