Algernon Graves

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Algernon Graves (1845-1922) was an art-sales and art-exhibition documenter who created reference sources that began the modern discipline of provenance research.

Algernon Graves was born in Pall Mall, London, the son of Henry Graves (1806–1892) a publisher of prints, and Mary Squire (d. 1871).

Graves studied German in Bonn, Germany, before working for his father's company Henry Graves & Co., researching for catalogs of that the company published.

During a period of recovery following an injury, Graves had the idea of creating a catalog of art that was exhibited in London, from his extensive lists of artists and their works that he had compiled while working on other projects. In 1884 he published the first edition of his idea, entitled "A Dictionary of Artists who have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions from 1760 to 1880". A second edition followed in 1885 and a third in 1901. In 1899, Graves and William V. Cronin issued the first volume of their work on Sir Joshua Reynolds, which they sold by subscription. In 1900, a book on Sir Thomas Lawrence by Lord Gower (1845-1916) included a catalog by Graves.

When his father Henry died in 1892, Algernon took over the running of Henry Graves & Company, where he worked until he retired in 1907.

Algernon Graves married the daughter of an art dealer, J. C. Grundy from Manchester, England and they had a son Herbert Seymour Graves who later assisted Graves with later editions of the 'Dictionary of Artists' series. His son died in 1898. Graves remarried in 1919 to Madeline Lilian Sophia Wakeling Walker. Graves died in Marylebone, in 1922 and is buried at Brompton cemetery, London.

[edit] Publications

"Royal Academy of Arts: a Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work" (1905)
"Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1760–1791 [and the] Free Society of Artists, 1761–1783" (1907)
"British Institution, 1806–1867" (1908)
"Summary of and Index to Waagen" (1912)
"A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912" (1913)
"Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century" (1918 to 1921)