Frank Lloyd was born to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria-Hungary in 1911. After the Anschluss, Lloyd fled Vienna for Paris and later managed to escape on a Polish boat to London, c.1939. He established Marlborough Fine Art in 1946 along with his friend, and fellow Austrian émigré, Harry Fischer, selling antiquarian books and a few paintings and initially exhibiting works mainly by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and French Modern masters. The gallery embraced contemporary art in the 1950s and by the 1960s Fischer and Lloyd had expanded their business to include galleries in New York, Rome, Zurich, Toronto and Montreal.
Gallerist and art dealer Frank Lloyd (né Franz Kurt Levai) was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1911. Although both his parents were prominent antique dealers, Lloyd initially established a successful career in the oil importing business, earning enough money to purchase examples of modern art, including works by Picasso and the Fauves. After the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany) in 1938, Lloyd and his brother fled Vienna for Paris where they were interned near Bordeaux prior to the German invasion of France. Lloyd managed to escape on a Polish boat to London, c.1939. His parents both perished in the Holocaust but his infant son, Gilbert, and future wife, Herta Menzel (who was not Jewish) survived despite returning to Vienna from France. In Britain Lloyd was interned as a so-called 'enemy alien' at Prees Heath Camp in Shropshire but was released in 1940. He subsequently served in the British army, initially with the Pioneer Corps (a unit which accepted German and Austrian refugees, many of whom were Jewish) before joining a fighting unit. Lloyd, who changed his name to Francis Kenneth Lloyd on the advice of army officials in order to protect family members still in France, later saw action in France during the Normandy invasion in 1944.
After the war Lloyd settled in London, eventually marrying Menzel in 1947, the year after he established Marlborough Fine Art, along with his friend, and fellow Austrian émigré, Harry Fischer, choosing the name for its aristocratic connotations. Lloyd was able to retrieve some of the art collection he had built up before the war and the gallery opened at London's 17-18 Old Bond Street, selling antiquarian books and a few paintings and initially exhibiting works mainly by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modern French masters. In 1948 Lloyd and Fischer hired David Somerset, later the Duke of Beaufort as Chairman of the gallery. The gallery embraced contemporary art in the 1950s and by the 1960s Fischer and Lloyd had expanded their business to include galleries in New York, Rome, Zurich, Toronto and Montreal. The London branch of Marlborough represented many of the leading figures in British art, including Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Frank Auerbach. Lloyd and Fischer parted ways in 1971.
Frank Lloyd, who was remembered for putting 'the business in the art business' (NY Times obituary), died in Nassau, Bahamas on 7 April 1998. The Marlborough Gallery is still managed by his descendants. In 2019 Lloyd featured in the exhibition Brave New Visions: The Émigrés who Transformed the British Art World at Sotheby’s, illustrating the pivotal role émigré art dealers played in the UK, championing avant-garde European and British artists.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Frank Lloyd]
Publications related to [Frank Lloyd] in the Ben Uri Library