Annely Juda Fine Art

German-born Anneliese 'Annely' Brauer (1914-2006) was arguably the doyenne of British art dealing. After fleeing Nazi Germany she arrived in England in 1937 having spent three hard years in Palestine. She studied art briefly at the now-defunct Reimann School in London and soon married. The marriage failed after a few years and Juda as she now was had designs on her own art gallery having worked for collector and dealer Eric Estorick. In 1960 Juda opened the Molton Gallery which lasted a full three years and showed artists such as William Turnbull, Robyn Denny and Bernard Cohen all cutting-edge practitioners at the time. In 1963 Juda started the Hamilton Galleries, where she mounted group shows that included the works of internationally famous Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and German Expressionist Alexei Jawlensky. The gallery closed in 1967 and in 1968 reopened as Annely Juda Fine Art with the help of her son David Juda in the then unfashionable Fitzrovia area of central London. In 1990 the gallery relocated into much larger premises to its present site in Tottenham Mews, London. Other artists of major importance that the gallery represented included Michael Michaeledes, Alan Green, Michael Kenny, Leon Kossoff, Prunella Clough, David Hockney, Anthony Caro and Nigel Hall.

In 1982 the Rowan Gallery joined AJFA to form the Juda Rowan Gallery a liaison that lasted three years. In 1998 the diminutive German dealer as the press had described her was awarded a CBE in recognition of her services to the arts, the first time such an honour has been given to a contemporary art dealer.