Arthur Jeffress

Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History 2021
Arthur Jeffress was an art dealer and collector from a Virginian family who bequeathed his "subversive little collection" (Derek Hill) to Tate and Southampton City Art Gallery on his suicide in 1961. That suicide, a result of his expulsion from Venice, has been the subject of speculation in many memoirs.
Gill Hedley's biography of Jeffress has benefited from access to many hundreds of unpublished letters written between Jeffress and Robert Melville, who ran Jeffress' own gallery from 1955-1961. The letters were written largely while Jeffress was in Venice and reveal a vivid picture of the London gallery world as well as frank details of artists, collectors and the definitive story of his suicide.
Previously unpublished research reveals new information about the lives of Jeffress' lover John Deakin, his business partner Erica Brausen, the French photographer André Ostier and Henry Clifford, and the way in which all of them influenced Jeffress' first steps as a collector from the 1930s onwards.

Gill Hedley worked as a museum curator in three regional museums before organising major exhibitions world-wide for the British Council. Now freelance, she works as a writer, exhibition curator, museum consultant and advisor to a number of individual artists. She will curate an exhibition 'A Complete Portrait of Arthur Jeffress' for Southampton City Art Gallery in early 2020. Gill is the author of Free Seats for All (2018) and Let Her Paint (1988).

Introduction
1. Virginia and New York
2. Acton and Tobacco
3. Harrow and the Far East
4. Cambridge
5. 1925 and its Consequences
6. Grand Tours
7. A Medley of Extemporanea
8. "The Muff was Particularly Unfortunate"
9. John Deakin and New Homes
10. The Zam Zam Adventure
11. "I Shall Still Be Hungry in the Spring"
12. "What A Lovely War. What Shall I Do At the End of It/"
13. "Tante Cose"
14. Modern Art to Frighten the Horses in Hampshire
15. Erica Brausen
16, The Hanover Gallery
17. "Arthur Jeffress for Painting"
18. Gentle Friends
19. Portrait of Arthur Jeffress
20. Dear Robert, Love Art
21. Private Lives
22. "My Love to the Wife and Kids"
23. Life in Venice
24. Death in Paris
25. At Home in Sunlight