P. & D. Colnaghi & Co.

Colnaghi is an art dealership in St James's, central London, England, which is the oldest commercial art gallery in the world, having been established in 1760.

Foundation

The business that became the Colnaghi gallery was established by Italian firework manufacturer, Giovanni Battista Torre, in Paris, France, in 1760. Torre opened a shop with the name "Cabinet de Physique Expérimentale", where he sold scientific instruments, books and prints.

In 1767, Torre's son Anthony Torre moved to London where he opened a sister shop, specialising in prints, in partnership with another Italian immigrant, Anthony Molteno. Giovanni Torre died in 1780, and in 1784 Anthony Torre hired Paul Colnaghi—newly arrived in Paris from Milan—to manage a new shop in Palais-Royal, Paris.

Paul Colnaghi (1751-1833)

Paul Colnaghi was born in 1751 as Paolo Colnago, in the Brianza region of northern Italy. He was the younger child of the influential Milanese lawyer Dr Martino Colnago and Ippolita Colnaga (née Raggi). He arrived in Paris after his father's death in 1783, where he initially worked for a Milanese optician named Ciceri, before Ciceri recommended Colnaghi's services to his friend Anthony Torre. Paul Colnaghi served as Torre's Paris agent (1784-7), mainly selling prints from England, but he left Paris for London in May 1785.

Arriving in London, Colnaghi joined Torre and Molteno, who had become successful selling prints by leading engravers such as William Wynne Ryland and Valentine Green.