o The first book devoted to the art dealer Alex Reid, a close friend of Van Gogh and Whistler o Draws extensively on unpublished sources, including correspondence, dealers' stockbooks (French and British) and private collectors' archives, as well as contemporary newspapers and periodicals o Focuses on modern European painting in the context of collecting, the art market and economic change in late nineteenth-century Britain Alexander Reid was one of the most influential art dealers of his time. A close friend of Whistler and the Van Gogh brothers, he was the first British dealer to take a serious interest in Impressionist art. He was also a contemporary of the Glasgow Boys and supported emerging artists such as Henry, Hornel and Crawhall as well as the Scottish Colourists. His clients were rich Scottish merchants and industrialists who made their fortunes on the back of Scotland's rapid economic development, and whom he persuaded to buy Impressionism well in advance of their English contemporaries.
In this first biography devoted to an unsung hero of the British art world, Frances Fowle traces the history of Reid's gallery against the background of a fascinating period of economic boom and bust.