Lucy Carrington Wertheim (1883–1971) was a British Gallery owner who founded the Twenties Group of "English artists in their twenties" in 1930 and was Christopher Wood

Christopher Wood (English painter)

John Christopher Wood , often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.-Biography:-Early life:Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley to Doctor Lucius and Clare Wood...

's main patron before his death.

She ran galleries in London, Brighton and Derbyshire and was known for encouraging many young artists and sculptors. In the 1920s she bought many works by Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

 and encouraged Cedric Morris

Cedric Morris

Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet was a British artist, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea but worked mainly in East Anglia...

.

In 1930 she opened her first gallery at 3-5 Burlington Gardens, Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

. It has been suggested that it was the artist Frances Hodgkins

Frances Hodgkins

Frances Mary Hodgkins was a painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in Britain...

 who finally persuaded or perhaps goaded Mrs Wertheim to move from enthusiastic supporter of 'Modern art

Modern art

Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

' to a fully fledged Gallery owner. Wertheim recalls the incident in her 1947 book 'Adventure in Art' - "Frances exclaimed to my husband, 'Your wife should open a gallery for us poor artists: her enthusiasm would make it a success!'...Those words however spoken more than half in jest, sowed a seed in my mind that was to bear fruit later."

Whatever finally got her to open the gallery, there were many artists who were no doubt glad she did. Those either exhibited there or supported by Mrs Wertheim included Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert

Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....

, Rodney Gladwell

Rodney Gladwell

Rodney Gladwell was a British artist born in Didcot, Berkshire, England whose paintings "hover between abstraction and figuration and play on this ambiguity"....

, Humphrey Slater

Humphrey Slater

Humphrey Richard "Hugh" Slater was a British author and painter.Brought up in South Africa, he attended the Slade School of Art in the mid-1920s, and exhibited an abstract painting at Lucy Wertheim's gallery, a leading London gallery....

, Helmut Kolle

Helmut Kolle

Helmut Kolle was a German painter who found major success in France in the 1920s, fusing German modernist style with the more refined elegance of French painting....

, Vivin Hume, Phelan Gibb

Phelan Gibb

Harry Phelan Gibb was a British artist influenced by the work of Paul Cézanne, who exhibited in London, Paris and New York.Born in Alnwick, Northumberland, he studied at Newcastle, Edinburgh, Antwerp and Munich as well as Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens where he lived for twenty five years.His style...

, John Bigge and John Banting, Henry Stockley

Henry Stockley

Henry Stockley was an English primitive artist. Once called "the greatest inspired painter since William Blake," Henry Stockley was arguably the most important primitive artists active in the period 1930 to 1960...

, Nando Manetti, Rowland Suddaby, Leslie Hurry

Leslie Hurry

Leslie George Hurry was a British artist and set designer for ballet, theatre and opera.The son of A. G. Hurry, a funeral director in St John's Wood, he was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. Resisting pressure to join the family business, he attended St. John's Wood Art School and the...

, Isla Rodmell, Kenneth Hall

Kenneth Hall (artist)

Kenneth Hall was a British artist who co-founded The White Stag group with Basil Rakoczi.Born in Farnham, Surrey and educated at Lancing College, he was designing furniture in London before he showed his work to the dealer Lucy Wertheim who offered to put him on at show at her gallery in Mayfair...

, Basil Rakoczi

Basil Rakoczi

Basil Ivan Rákóczi was an artist born in London. He was a prominent and leading member of the Irish art group, the White Stag, along with Kenneth Hall.-Biography:...

, John Melville

John Melville

John Melville was an English surrealist artist, described by Michel Remy in his book Surrealism in Britain as one of the "harbingers of surrealism" in Great Britain....

, Feliks Topolski

Feliks Topolski

Feliks Topolski RA was a Polish-born British expressionist painter and draughtsman.- Life :Felix Topolski was born on 14 August 1907 in Warsaw...

, David Burton, Cedric Morris

Cedric Morris

Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet was a British artist, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea but worked mainly in East Anglia...

, Alfred Wallis

Alfred Wallis

Alfred Wallis was a Cornish fisherman and artist.Wallis's parents, Charles and Jane Wallis were from Penzance in Cornwall and moved to Devonport, Devon to find work in 1850 where Alfred and his brother Charles were born. Shortly after this the children's mother died and this prompted the family to...

, Frances Hodgkins

Frances Hodgkins

Frances Mary Hodgkins was a painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in Britain...

, Elizabeth Rivers, Mostyn Lewis, Jose Christopherson, and of course Christopher Wood

Christopher Wood (English painter)

John Christopher Wood , often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.-Biography:-Early life:Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley to Doctor Lucius and Clare Wood...

amongst many others.