A PAIR OF HAND COLOURED PAPER AND COLLAGE ANGELS

Provenance: 

Apparently acquired by Gordon Craig by repute from Marina Henderson Gallery, circa 1920, and thence to his son, Edward Craig. 

A printed note to reverse attributes the two figures to Filippo Acciaiuoli (1637-1700) who was know known for his plays, music, stage mechanics and puppets. 

Marina Henderson opened her Gallery in Langton Street, at the World’s End, in 1982. Her main specialities were paintings and drawing related to the performing arts. Her first coup was to exhibit Edward Burra’s designs for ballet, an area of his work that had never been the subject of a Gallery show. Another breakthrough was a series of shows of designs by John Marfarlane early in his career before he became one of the leading international designers for opera and ballet.  Other important exhibitions featured Bakst, Barbier, Beaton, Benois, Berard, Berman, Cocteau, Edward Gordon Craig, Erte, Gontcharova, Leslie Hurry, Laura Knight, Larianov, John Minton,Tanya Moisewitch and Picasso.

The Gallery’s customers, including actors, directors, curators and archivists from Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Harvard Theatre Museum, the University of Texas and major private collectors in UK and USA.

The Marina Henderson Gallery soon developed into a social club where customers became friends and friends customers. Sadly it closed with the expiry of the lease in 2001. Marina continued to deal privately from home for the next 12 years.