Gustav Delbanco was born into a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany in 1903 and fled to England c. 1933 after the rise of Nazism in Germany, first setting up a small art dealing office on Piccadilly with fellow German émigré Henry Roland. In 1938 Delbanco became a naturalised British subject, and after the war the pair opened a gallery of contemporary art in Mayfair, joined by Lillian Browse as a third partner; the eponymous Roland, Browse & Delbanco helped to revive interest in Rodin, then a much neglected sculptor, and showed the works of refugee painter Josef Herman, Prunella Clough, Philip Sutton, Alfred Cohen, Keith Grant, and Henry Moore, among other notables. The gallery, now named Browse and Darby, remains on Cork Street to this day.
Art dealer Gustav Delbanco was born in Hamburg, Germany on 7th December 1903 into an old Venetian Jewish trading family which had arrived in Germany in the 19th century. Having refused to join the family business Delbanco took a doctorate in Heidelberg before leaving Hamburg and immigrating to England in the early 1930s, following the rise of Nazism in early 1933. Here he met his future business partner, fellow German émigré Henry Roland (born Heinrich Rosenbaum, known to friends as Heinz, even after his name change), and together they set up a small office on Piccadilly where they specialised in 17th and 18th century painting; in 1938 Delbanco became a naturalised British subject, three years after Roland. During the Blitz, despite taking on civil defence duties, Delbanco continued to work as an art dealer; however, neither he nor Roland had much money and, in order to make ends meet beyond dealing, they gave German lessons. Fortuitously, in 1942 he and Roland spotted an 'Entombment' in a saleroom, which they felt was wrongly attributed to Isenbrandt, believing it to be by a much earlier and more distinguished artist, Robert Campin (The Master of Flemalle). Forming a syndicate of refugee German dealers, including Arthur Kauffmann, Franz Drey and Alfred Scharf (light-heartedly named the Fondaco die Tedeschi), the group acquired the painting. Although it was turned down by the National Gallery, noted German collector Count Seilern bought the work, which is displayed in the Courtauld Galleries today.
After the end of the Second World War, Roland and Delbanco opened a gallery of contemporary art at 19 Cork Street, Mayfair (still one of the most prestigious addresses for London galleries today). Lillian Browse, an expert in modern art who had organised wartime exhibitions at the National Gallery, joined them as a third partner, having met Roland when she was looking for a German language teacher. As she recalled in Delbanco's later obituary in The Independent, 'In those days all art books were in German, and so German was an essential language. Neither Gustav nor Henry Roland had much money so they had to do things like give German lessons. But they were widely accepted as men of quite remarkable knowledge' (23 October 2011). William Nicholson was one of the first British contemporary painters to join the gallery, while one of their earliest exhibitions featured the work of sculptor, Auguste Rodin, an artist whose reputation had suffered considerable neglect. The gallery would subsequently show the work of Polish refugee, Josef Herman, alongside that of Prunella Clough, Philip Sutton, Alfred Cohen, Keith Grant, Henry Moore and Bernard Dunstan, among other notables. In his 1973 solo exhibition at the gallery, Herman included two portraits of Delbanco, in contrasting moods, as reported in the Jewish Chronicle (2 November 1973). Despite the gallery's more contemporary profile, Delbanco and Roland continued to deal in Old Masters, and thanks to their vast knowledge they made many further important discoveries. Delbanco was often consulted by institutions, including the British Museum, to help with attributions. In 1977 Roland and Delbanco retired from the gallery to be replaced by William Darby, and the gallery was renamed Browse and Darby. Delbanco was also known for his warm interest in artists as people, quite aside from their works, often inviting them to dine at his Hampstead home, which was filled with works by Rubens, Degas, Rodin, and one of the finest private collections of 'primitive' Staffordshire pottery figures, which he considered to be folk art. Gustav Delbanco died in London on 25th January 1997. His significant contribution as a refugee art dealer was highlighted in the exhibition (and accompanying publication), Brave New Visions: The Émigrés Who Transformed the British Art World held at Sotheby`s, London, in 2019 as part of the Insiders/Outsiders Festival, celebrating the contribution made by the Hitler émigrés to British visual culture. Several émigré artists who feature in Ben Uri's permanent collection were exhibited by Roland, Browse and Delbanco, including Josef Herman and Katerina Wilczynski.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Gustav Delbanco]
Publications related to [Gustav Delbanco] in the Ben Uri Library