Published 26/01/2015
Harriet Bridgeman, the founder of Bridgeman Images, reveals her favourite images and footage in the archive
1. What is your role at Bridgeman? I founded Bridgeman Images in 1972, since I knew from my experience as an editor of illustrated books that there was a need for a central database of images. I also knew that museums needed help with their finances and so I originated the idea of handling the reproduction rights of their collections on their behalf and ensuring that they received 50% of any monies generated.
2. What do you love most about the job? I love the fact that I have to travel around the world seeking and acquiring new collections. That I work with people who are as interested in art as I am and also that I am able to provide jobs for History of Art graduates for whom the job market is not particularly easy.
3. What misconceptions do clients most commonly have about the archive? We have recently changed the name of the company from the Bridgeman Art Library to Bridgeman Images because people were unaware of the extraordinary width of the collection which covers history, photography and every aspect of culture as well as the obvious art. |
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Lady Bridgeman's favourite images in the archive are...
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1. Jeffrey Smart
Jeffrey Smart is an Australian surrealist artist who has recently died. I visited him in Tuscany and greatly enjoyed both his company and his paintings. His work is now beginning to fetch deservedly high prices in Australia. At the same time I visited Matthew Spender, the son of Stephen Spender whose photographic collection we now represent. |
2. Stanley Spencer
I met Stanley Spencer while I was still at school and have always been very impressed by this work. More recently I met his daughter Unity who told me that her father was very cross with her when he painted this picture as she had just cut her fringe! |
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3. Mark Gerson
This was photographed by an old friend, Mark Gerson, who photographed all the great and the good in the art and literary world in the latter part of the last century. He told me that he was staying with the Waughs when he took this photograph and I have many memories of the amusing stories he told me of this time. |
4. Lincoln Seligman
Lincoln Seligman is an artist who left a very successful job in banking to become an equally successful professional artist. I remember the exhibition in which this picture featured as he was generously donating half the proceeds to an Indian eye charity. Together we successfully fought a case against the piracy of one of his paintings, and as a result we were awarded a case of champagne and an out of court settlement! |
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5. Philip de László
The de László archive was one of the first footage archives that we acquired thank to the generosity of the artist's grandson, Damon de László. It is a wonderful record of pre-war England, a society not dissimilar to the society featured in Downton Abbey! |
6. Orlando Bridgeman
I have chosen this picture because there is an amusing story attached. We used to supply contemporary images for a City magazine called Risk. On one occasion they asked to reproduce a Bridget Riley but decided at the last minute that the copyright fee was too high. At precisely that moment my youngest son, Orlando, aged 8 walked in with this painting which he had just brought back from his art class. To my surprise and his delight, they chose it as an alternative! |
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