Minnie McIntyre reviews Richard Day’s Artful Tales: The Unlikely and Implausible Journal of an Art Dealer
A “smootherboy” (the self-congratulatory gang name adopted by public school- and Oxbridge-educated male staff at Sotheby’s), Richard Day entered the art world by putting together a small prints exhibition on Cork Street with the remaining £50 of his army earnings. As an evidently sociable and charming young man, he was soon welcomed onto the Sotheby’s team, where he became director of the Print and Old Master Drawings department and was made partner by the age of 30.
He left Sotheby’s in 1971 to enter into partnership as a dealer with his close friend and brother-in-law, John Baskett. Together they held their exhibitions in Baskett’s Bond Street gallery space. Well-connected as they were, they quickly found collectors to work for, many of whom, such as Paul Mellon, Frits Lugt and Jean Bonna, became close friends.
Artful Tales is the engaging anecdotal account of Day’s career, relating amusing incidents with great wit and perception of character. Day’s account doesn’t touch on the difficulties inevitable in any such business over the course of 40 years, but rather presents a self-assured success story with insights into the art world as it has developed over the last half century. (…more at The Art Newspaper website…)