Wally Findlay Galleries: What a Findlay Label Means on Your Painting
Wally Findlay Galleries sold French and American paintings from Kansas City, Chicago, New York and Palm Beach. Here is the gallery history, who it sold, and what a Findlay label means for your painting.
SebastianCharles Auctions
Wally Findlay Galleries sold paintings to American collectors for most of the 20th century, and its Chicago gallery on Michigan Avenue made it a familiar name to Midwest collectors. If you turn over a painting and find a Findlay label, here is what it tells you, who the gallery sold, and how to judge what the painting is worth.
From Kansas City to Michigan Avenue
The business began in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1870, when William Findlay opened art rooms that sold paintings, frames and art supplies. His son Walstein took over and started buying paintings in Europe to sell in America. Today the company calls itself the second oldest art gallery in continuous operation in the United States.
Walstein's son Wally Findlay made the name famous. He bought in Europe in the 1920s, and in the early 1930s he opened a gallery on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. From there the business kept growing:
- A New York gallery on 57th Street, opened by Wally's brother David in the 1930s
- A gallery and residence on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach in 1961
- A townhouse gallery on East 57th Street in New York in 1964
- Beverly Hills in 1971, Paris in 1972 and Tokyo in 1974
Wally Findlay died in 1996 without heirs. James Borynack, who had run the New York gallery, bought the company, and in 2016 it merged with the David Findlay Jr. Gallery to become Findlay Galleries. It operates today in Palm Beach and New York.
What Findlay sold
Findlay built its business on French painting. The gallery is known for Impressionism, the School of Paris, the School of Rouen and European modernism, along with naïve painters and mid century American abstraction.
Wally Findlay also championed living French painters and sold their work to American buyers. Yolande Ardissone is a good example. Findlay discovered her in 1957 and showed her work in Chicago in 1962, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1978, along with shows in New York, Palm Beach, Beverly Hills and Paris. Jean Jansem, the French Armenian painter, is another artist whose work Findlay sold.
Findlay pieces we have sold
Because Findlay had a Chicago gallery for decades, its labels still turn up on paintings in Midwest homes. Two we have sold:
- Jean Jansem, Femme au coq, oil on canvas, 1972, with a Wally Findlay Gallery label. The painting is reproduced in Pierre Mazars' book on Jansem.
- Yolande Ardissone, Beach Scene, oil on canvas, with a Findlay Galleries label on the back.
What the label means for value
A Findlay label tells you the painting was sold by a major, established gallery, usually close to when it was painted. That helps with authenticity, and for some living artists of that era Findlay was their main American dealer.
The value still comes from the artist and the painting. A strong oil by a sought after School of Paris painter can bring thousands. Decorative pictures by lesser known Findlay artists can sell for a few hundred dollars or less, even with the label. Size, subject, condition and the original frame all play a part.
What to check on your Findlay painting
Read the label
A Findlay label may name the gallery location, the artist and the title. Write down everything on the label and keep it with the painting.
Look for the artist's book
Some Findlay artists have catalog books, like the Mazars book on Jansem. If your painting is reproduced in one, note the page or number. That is strong documentation.
Keep the frame and the paperwork
Keep the original frame, the invoice and any certificate together with the painting. They are part of the painting's history.
Other galleries on our blog
Findlay is one of several gallery names we see on the backs of paintings. Read our posts on Landfall Press, Dayton's Gallery 12, the Locksley Shea Gallery and the Suzanne Kohn Gallery.
Selling a painting from Wally Findlay Galleries
If you have a painting with a Findlay label, send us photos of the front, the back with the label, and the signature. Sebastian personally reviews every inquiry. Our paintings department handles European and American works, and you can request an estimate here.