Art dealer and connoisseur.
Martin H. Colnaghi
1821 - 1908
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Summary of activity
Worked for the art dealing firm P&D Colnaghi. Martin Henry Colnaghi travelled in Europe to value, authenticate and buy artworks later to be sold in Britain and internationally. Colnaghi gave £80,000 to the National Gallery in the Martin Colnaghi Bequest.
Slavery connections
No known connections with slavery.
Abolition connections
No known connections with abolition.
National Gallery painting connections
Previous owner: NG purchased from Colnaghi in 1887: NG1242 (now at Tate, N01242); in 1895: NG1459.
Donor: presented in 1896: NG1481; in 1908: NG2286.
Donor: bequeathed in 1908: NG2281, NG2282, NG2283, NG2284 (now at Tate, N02284).
Paintings previously owned by Martin H. Colnaghi
Aert van der Neer was a specialist in painting landscapes with distinctive lighting effects – often under moonlight, or at the beginning or end of the day. The title given to this painting (probably in the eighteenth or nineteenth century) suggests that it’s set in the evening, though the cold bl...
Not on display
A man wearing the cap and gown of a scholar sits at a desk in a dark and cavernous room, a glazed expression on his face. He clasps a pair of reading glasses, implying that he was until a moment ago studying the book propped up in front of him. A large diagram of the palm of a hand is visible on...
Not on display
This group portrait shows the officers of the Coopers‘ and Wine-rackers’ guild of Amsterdam, which included men who made barrels for the wine imported into the city and those who sampled and bottled it. The name of the guild is written on the seal which hangs over the edge of the table, while in...
Not on display
Martin Colnaghi (1821–1908) was a picture dealer and collector with a keen interest in old master paintings, especially Dutch and Flemish pictures. He is portrayed in his outdoor clothes, sitting on a buttoned red leather seat in front of a large gilt-framed landscape oil painting; he has removed...
Not on display
No other Renaissance painting of the Virgin and Child with saints shows the naked infant Christ sitting on a pillow on a coffin. This unique addition indicates Christ’s acceptance of and conquest over death. Meditation on Christ’s death encouraged understanding of his suffering for humanity’s red...
Not on display
Smoke seems to mingle with the clouds in this dramatic scene of Gypsies round a fire against a background of distant mountains and closer hills. Strong women carry babies slung round them in shawls, and here and there a man’s turban is visible. An old man tends the fire.A woman with a baby on her...
Not on display