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Colnaghi

Founded in 1760, Colnaghi is the oldest and most important art dealership in the world.

Follow us for expert voices and behind-the-scenes access into Old Masters, Antiquities and Modern Art at our galleries in London and New York.

01/09/2026

Opening on 7 September, Out of the Sand: Ancient Egypt Rediscovered brings together antiquities, paintings, works on paper, early photographs and rare books to examine how ancient Egypt has been studied, collected and represented across centuries.

Egypt was never lost to the Egyptians, yet its monuments and material culture were repeatedly presented to audiences elsewhere as discoveries. From the Roman adoption of Egyptian forms to Napoleon’s campaign of 1798 and the growth of Egyptology in the nineteenth century, each encounter produced a different vision of Egypt, shaped by the intellectual, artistic and political circumstances of its time.

Placing ancient objects alongside the paintings, publications and photographs through which later generations sought to record and interpret them, the exhibition considers how Egypt’s material culture acquired new meanings through excavation, scholarship, collecting and display.

On view at Colnaghi London until 17 November 2026.

Carl Werner (Weimar 1808–1894 Leipzig), At the Temple of Abu Simbel, c. 1860, signed lower left “Carl. Werner. f”, oil on canvas, 190 × 122 cm (74 ¾ × 48 in.).

27/08/2026

For its first participation in RendezVous - Brussels Art Week, Colnaghi Brussels is pleased to present The Order of Things, an exhibition curated by COSEINCORSO that brings works from the gallery’s collection into dialogue with objects and photographs created by the design studio.

The exhibition examines how the interpretation of an object is shaped by its surroundings and by its relationship to other works. Paintings, antiquities, furniture and contemporary design are presented together within an installation conceived as an interior, recalling the arrangement of a private collection or an artist’s studio. In place of a chronological display, works from different periods are connected through specific correspondences of material, form, function and subject.

By returning the selected works to an interior setting, The Order of Things considers how
objects move between different contexts: from artistic production and practical use to
collection, display and reinterpretation. Distinctions between periods and media are
maintained, while their arrangement makes new comparisons possible.

COSEINCORSO is a design studio founded by Marzia Cerio and Marwann Frikach. Working at the intersection of craftsmanship, curation, and contemporary aesthetics, the studio develops objects and spaces that reconnect design with meaning and narrative depth.

24/08/2026

An extract from our latest interview, now available on the Colnaghi YouTube channel.

In this episode of Colnaghi Talks, we are joined by Daniel Sobrino Ralston, CEEH Associate Curator of Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery, to discuss his career, his work with Spanish painting and the particular curatorial challenges presented by the Spanish Golden Age.

To watch the full interview, please visit the link in our bio.

22/08/2026

Georges Clairin first met Sarah Bernhardt in 1874, beginning an artistic friendship that would endure for nearly fifty years. Bernhardt became his frequent muse and model, appearing in portraits, allegorical compositions and studies of her celebrated theatrical roles.

This drawing records Bernhardt during a rehearsal for Victorien Sardou’s five-act drama La Tosca, which opened at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris in November 1887. Clairin captures the play’s climactic final act, as Tosca advances to place two candles beside the body of Baron Scarpia. An inscription confirms that the sketch was made during a rehearsal, giving it the immediacy of an eyewitness record. The work is dedicated to Clairin’s friend Dussart, possibly the artist Léon Dussart, a pupil of Paul Delaroche.

Discover further details about this work on our website.

18/08/2026

Wenceslaus Hollar left his native Prague in 1627, working across Germany before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who brought him to London in 1636. Through Arundel’s celebrated collection, Hollar gained access to drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, a number of which he translated into etching.

Created during Hollar’s years in Antwerp, between 1644 and 1652, this print records three heads derived from a Leonardo drawing now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. The precision of Hollar’s line preserves the contrast between youth and age that characterises Leonardo’s studies of the human profile. A sharp early impression, this example is the first of two states and bears the inscription: “Leonardo da Vinci inv. W. Hollar Fecit.”

Discover further details about this work on our website.

15/08/2026

Today marks the final opportunity to explore Fragments, our online exhibition examining the enduring artistic and historical significance of the fragment.

This late eighteenth-century French drawing reflects the disciplined study of antiquity that underpinned Neoclassical artistic training. Sculptural and architectural fragments were copied not merely as remnants of the ancient world, but as essential models through which artists learned proportion, form and composition. The sheet also speaks to the period’s expanding archaeological imagination. Its careful arrangement of broken bodies, herms and architectural elements evokes the academies, studios and antiquarian collections in which fragments were studied, classified and transformed into sources of artistic knowledge.

Discover the exhibition and explore all featured works on our website.

12/08/2026

Created in the Yoruba kingdom of Ife between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, this bronze standing figure belongs to one of the most significant sculptural traditions of medieval Africa. Ife, in present-day southwestern Nigeria, is regarded as the spiritual and cultural centre of Yoruba civilisation.

Bronze figures were cast using the lost-wax technique and represented kings, queens and other prominent members of Ife society. Celebrated for their naturalism, idealised proportions and serene composure, these rare works attest to the exceptional technical and artistic sophistication achieved by Ife sculptors.

Discover the exhibition and explore all featured works on our website.

08/08/2026

This fragment of painted cartonnage preserves a sweeping wing, its overlapping feathers articulated in vivid turquoise, deep red and golden yellow. At the upper left, the remains of a cellular pattern suggest the beadwork of a broad collar once positioned across the chest of the mummy.

In ancient Egyptian funerary imagery, divine wings enfolded the deceased in a protective embrace. Often associated with goddesses such as Nut, Isis and Nephthys, they promised shelter, regeneration and safe passage through the netherworld. The colours were equally symbolic: blue-green evoked the heavens and the renewal of life, while gold recalled both sunlight and the imperishable flesh of the gods.

Discover the exhibition and explore all featured works on our website.

05/08/2026

This South Italian Greek antefix, produced in Tarentum around 500 BC, takes the form of a gorgoneion: the fearsome head of a Gorgon. Its wide, staring eyes, projecting fangs, extended tongue and coiled serpentine hair transform an architectural element into a powerful apotropaic image. Antefixes were fixed along the edges of tiled roofs, concealing and protecting their exposed ends. Here, decoration and function converge. Positioned prominently above the building, the Gorgon’s terrifying gaze was intended to ward off evil and guard the structure beneath it.

Discover the exhibition and explore all featured works on our website.

31/07/2026

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has renewed interest in one of the greatest epics ever written. While Homer's poem survives through literature, the material culture of the Greek world offers a glimpse into the society in which its stories were composed and imagined.

These three works, currently on view at Colnaghi London, span the Late Bronze Age to the early Archaic period. Together, they remind us that the visual world of ancient Greece looked very different from the marble temples and idealised sculptures we often associate with Classical antiquity. They also speak to one of the poem's central themes: xenia, the sacred relationship between host and guest, so often expressed through the shared rituals of eating and drinking.

Swipe through to discover three remarkable vessels from the world of Homer.

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Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm
Friday	10am - 6pm

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