Grubb Group

This group of artists was the idea of Edward Craig (who painted under the pseudonym of Edward Carrick) and a then young Italian chef Peppino Leoni who opened the Quo Vadis restaurant, 26 Dean Street, Soho, London in 1926. Craig frequented the restaurant becoming a friend of the proprietor who suggested he Craig hang some of his works on the walls. He soon expanded the idea into an artists’ society limited to 16 members who in turn were given a meal voucher by Leoni so as to reduce their financial risk. By 1941, he had purchased the next 3 building and the restaurant is today one of the icons of London’s Soho.

The first exhibition in 1928 consisted of no less than 120 pictures and the exhibiting artists included Claude Flight, Edward Carrick, George Bissill, Austin Osman Spare, Ethelbert White and stage designer Oliver Messel. The idea was well-received by the public and the newspapers alike with the notion of artists painting to eat hitting home to buyers, hence the name Grubb Group. The magazine Artwork published a small but informative review in its Summer 1928 edition. Annual shows continued until the outbreak of World War II when Leoni being an enemy alien was interned on the Isle of Man. In 1946 he re-opened the restaurant but sadly without the artists as the buying public were going through austere times. The restaurant passed through several owners between Leoni’s departure in 1976 most notably Marco Pierre White, who installed the beautiful stained glass windows. It is hard to imagine that Karl Marx once lived in squalid conditions on the 3rd floor, where he wrote Das Kapital, before relocating to more respectable lodgings in Hampstead.

Number of Artists referenced: 13