Christmas Exhibition    Dec 1 - Dec 19, 2008

To celebrate their first year of sharing a gallery in Mason’s Yard in St. James’s, Stephen Ongpin and Guy Peppiatt have pleasure in announcing their collaboration on a joint catalogue of 100 drawings and watercolours, which is now available. The catalogue will accompany their forthcoming Christmas Exhibition, opening on December 1st and continuing until December 19th.

Traditionally the fields of British Watercolours on the one hand, and Old Master, 19th century and Modern Drawings on the other, have each had their own collectors, auctions and exhibitions. The aim of the catalogue, and indeed the gallery as a whole, is to blur the distinction between these collecting areas, and hopefully show that a good drawing is always a good drawing, whoever the artist and whatever the date. The new catalogue includes a wide range of British and European drawings and watercolours ranging in date from the early sixteenth century until the present day, by British and European artists. Artists represented include William Callow, Sir George Clausen, Henri-Edmond Cross, Paul Delaroche, Eugène Deveria, Henri-Joseph Harpignies, Thomas Hearne, James Holland, Domenico Maggiotto, Charles Mahoney, Marco da Faenza, Joos de Momper, William James Müller, William Payne, Samuel Prout, Thomas Rowlandson, Paul Sandby, Henri Somm, John Varley and John Wonnacott.

In 1986 Stephen Ongpin started his career at Colnaghi in New York. In 1996 he moved to London where he continued to work at Colnaghi’s alongside Jean-Luc Baroni. Together they were responsible for the mounting of several Old Master and 19th century drawing exhibitions, with Stephen overseeing the researching, writing, editing and co-ordinating of their annual catalogues. His unique ability to produce scholarly, yet accessible catalogues has led him to write over thirty such catalogues to date. Stephen Ongpin Fine Art was established in London in 2006 with exhibitions in London and New York accompanied by two catalogues. Stephen’s particular area of expertise lies in 16th to 19th century Italian and French drawings, and he has a keen interest in 20th Century British works, though this catalogue exhibition will cover a range of other disciplines.

In contrast Guy Peppiatt took a different route; he started his working life in the museum world, at Dulwich Picture Gallery, but in 1993 moved to Sotheby’s British drawings and watercolours department. He was there for eleven years in all, during which time he discovered his passion for Topographical Views both of Britain and elsewhere. After running the Topographical and Travel sales, he became head of the British Watercolour Department. While at Sotheby’s he oversaw the sale of J.M.W. Turner’s Heidelberg for over two million pounds, a record at the time for a British watercolour. Since 2004 he has been working as an independent dealer, exhibiting at various art fairs and holding annual exhibitions of British drawings and watercolours.

The new joint catalogue, entitled One Hundred Drawings and Watercolours and fully illustrated in colour, is available from the gallery. The catalogue, and the accompanying exhibition, aims to show that drawings of fine quality, and of all periods, need not be prohibitively expensive and remain well within the reach of the novice collector, as well as the more experienced connoisseur. As a glance at the price list will show, the prices of the drawings and watercolours in the catalogue are equally broad in scope, ranging from £300 to £9,000, with a large number of interesting works at the lower end of this range.

For further information or photographs, or to receive a copy of the catalogue, please contact Guy Peppiatt, Stephen Ongpin or Lara Agius at:

Riverwide House
6 Mason’s Yard
Duke Street, St. James’s
London SW1Y 6BU