Anton Zwemmer was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 1892 and immigrated to England in 1914 to work for a leading book wholesaler, having been granted exemption from military service. As the founder of both Zwemmer's bookshop and the Zwemmer Gallery in London he was a friend and patron of many leading artists of the day, from Picasso to Henry Moore. In the words of art historian Herbert Read, 'Zwemmer's is a word immediately associated with the origins and developments of the modern movement in British art'.
Art dealer, gallerist and publisher, Anton Zwemmer was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands on 18 February 1892, eldest son of Arie and Baukje Huizinga Zwemmer. He attended the local Christian School for the Working Class and completed his education aged 14. His first job was with the publishing house of Herman Tjeenk Willink in Haarlem before moving to H.N. Mul where he learned the fundamentals of the book trade. In January 1912 he was granted exemption from national service and moved to Amsterdam as an assistant at Kirberger & Kesper which specialised in English literature. In 1914, now proficient in English, he immigrated to England to work for Simpkin Marshall, Britain’s leading book wholesaler. Soon afterwards, he began managing the bookshop at Harrods department store. He subsequently became assistant to Richard Jäschke, a German émigré bookseller specialising in antiquarian and modern first editions, located at 78 Charing Cross Road (a street renowned for its book dealers), where his ability to speak several languages, as well as his connections with Europe, proved invaluable. In 1924 Zwemmer acquired a partnership and took over the business. Modifying its profile, he quickly became the only specialist art book dealer in London. He stocked not only art publications, but also high-quality reproductions and a large number of domestic and foreign academic, avant-garde and mainstream art journals, including The Burlington Magazine, The Studio, Cahiers d’art, Minotaure (and its successor Labyrinthe). From 1925 onwards, while not only growing his collection of imported and domestic books and periodicals devoted to art, Zwemmer began to publish original titles on art and architecture, including artists’ books and the award-winning series, Studies in Architecture. He also co-published books in collaboration with European and American partners, namely Swiss publisher Albert Skira, including Giotto (1925), Botticelli (1927), Matisse and Picasso (1930), the first English language monograph on the artist. Zwemmer also supported emerging British artists and in 1934 published the first book on Henry Moore written by art historian Herbert Read.
In 1929 Zwemmer established a gallery at 26 Litchfield Street, around the corner from his Charing Cross bookshop which became a hub for modern art in Britain. Exhibitions featured the work of sculptors Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and were often closely linked to publications, such as Room and Book by Paul Nash (1932) and bohemian painter, Nina Hamnett’s autobiographical Laughing Torso (1932). In 1935 the gallery hosted the final exhibition of the 7 & 5 Society, the first entirely abstract exhibition held in Britain. The following year Zwemmer presented an exhibition of Picasso’s work, which featured 57 paintings and works on paper, including examples of Analytic and Synthetic Cubism and in 1937 he exhibited Picasso’s work alongside that of Giorgio de Chirico. The gallery also staged several Surrealist exhibitions, including a solo show of the work of Joan Miró and the first solo show of Salvador Dali’s work in Britain (1934) as well as showcasing the work of Braque, Chagall and Rouault. In 1940 Zwemmer published a volume on Jack Bilbo, self-taught German émigré artist, former impresario of Onchan internment camp on the Isle of Man and subsequent progressive London gallerist. In the 1940s, Zwemmer made joint purchases with other London dealers, namely Lefevre Gallery and Marlborough Fine Arts. His clients included many prominent British and American modern art collectors, among them Kenneth Clark, Douglas Cooper, Albert Gallatin, Roland Penrose, Sir Michael Sadler, and Peter Watson. Zwemmer’s bookshop business also continued to thrive and received regular orders from Britain’s National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. During the Second World War, however, Zwemmer chose to concentrate solely on the antiquarian book market due to the shortage of publications from Europe. He also began to involve his two sons, Desmond and John in business operations, subsequently rebranding the business A. Zwemmer Ltd.
Zwemmer Gallery reopened in 1947, after the war, shifting its focus from the international avant-garde to emerging British artists, among them Alistair Grant and Peter Coker. From the 1960s onwards Zwemmer also partnered with Oxford University Press and art publishers, Lund Humphries, publishing, in collaboration with the latter, a multi-volume set cataloguing the sculpture and drawings of Henry Moore. In 1962 Zwemmer celebrated his 70th birthday and to mark the occasion a publication was produced in his honour which included contributions from Herbert Read, Kenneth Clark and Henry Moore, among others. Henry Moore reflected that: ‘There are a few individuals in every age and country, whose vision and vitality applied in a particular sphere, have immense influence. I could mention eight or nine such individuals whose efforts during my lifetime have helped to change the whole climate of the English art world. Some of these I am very happy to count as my close friends, and one of them is Anton Zwemmer' (Alan Wilkinson ed., Henry Moore, Writings and Conversations, p.95). Zwemmer’s Gallery closed in 1968 though the bookshop remained in the family until 1985 when it was sold to Philip Wilson; it has since closed. Anton Zwemmer died in Rotherfield, England on 23 January 1979. Zwemmer's portrait photograph by Rex Coleman, for Baron Studios (1960) is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London and Zwemmer's archive is held by Tate archives.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Anton Zwemmer]
Publications related to [Anton Zwemmer] in the Ben Uri Library