Heal's

Heal's has been at the vanguard of modern design for 200 years and was the venue of the Mansard Gallery from 1917 until the 1970’s. Their first exhibition was organised by Roger Fry, one of the founders of the Bloomsbury Group and was a great success. The gallery drew a fashionable crowd and was often frequented by Fry's immediate circle of friends and artists, including Virginia Wolf, who wrote in her diary about meeting Aldous Huxley there for the first time.

The Mansard went on to exhibit the work of great artists, including Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Roger Fry, William Roberts, Claude Lovat Fraser, Mary Fedden, Wyndham Lewis, Terry Frost, Jacob Epstein and Amedeo Modigliani. Not only did individual artists exhibit at the Mansard, but the Friday Club, London Group, and Group X also held early exhibitions there. Due to the proximity of the Slade School of Fine Art to Heal’s, Ambrose Heal (1872-1959) was a frequent visitor to the School. He allowed graduates to exhibit their work at the Mansard Gallery in Heal's store. Ambrose Heal’s second wife, Emily Todhunter, was a student there.

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