38 Newbury Street
Martha Richardson Fine Art, located at 38 Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay, focuses on the purchase and sale of high quality American and European paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. Owner Martha Richardson comes to the art market with an extensive background in the field. She studied art history as both an undergraduate and a graduate student, worked as an expert at two auction houses and ran her first gallery for 12 years before opening her current gallery in 2006. Martha actively advises collectors and is frequently consulted for appraisals and evaluations.
Martha has a Master of Arts degree in Italian Renaissance Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She has also completed her Ph.D. coursework and examinations at the same University.
Martha Richardson Fine Art currently works with and/or represents the following artists’ estates: Hilda Belcher (1881-1963), John Leslie Breck (1860-1899), Alexander Brook (1898-1980), Leon Kelly (1901-1982), Truman Seymour (1824-1891), Everett Shinn (1876-1953) and John Wilson (1922-2015). Most recently, the gallery has taken over representation of the estate of Kenneth Stubbs (1907-1967) and will be holding its first exhibition of his work in October, 2024.
Until 2006, Martha was co-owner of the Richardson-Clarke Gallery. In The Boston Globe, art critic Nancy Stapen wrote that the Richardson-Clarke Gallery “has shown a flair for exhibiting high-quality works.” While running her first gallery, Martha mounted numerous exhibitions including American Painters in Venice, Cape Ann Artists, Artists of New Hampshire, Americans in Paris, and Drawings: William Morris Hunt and His Circle, among others. The gallery continues to hold exhibitions, most notably John Wilson: Mexico, 1950-1956, Agnes Weinrich: American Modernist, Charles Hovey Pepper: Boston Modernist, Hilda Belcher: paintings, drawings & watercolors and Leon Kelly: paintings & drawings.
Prior to moving to Boston in 1988, Martha was employed by Sotheby’s, New York. She was an Assistant Vice President and expert in the American Painting Department until she left the company to pursue her doctoral studies. While a doctoral student, she continued with the Sotheby’s Appraisal Company as a consultant appraiser of American and European Fine Art. At that time, Martha taught in the American Arts Program at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
From 1988-1994, Martha was the Director of the Fine Arts Department at Grogan & Company, an auction house located in Boston. She was responsible for evaluating and cataloguing the American and European paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints that were consigned for sale and for the replacement and fair market appraisals of fine art for insurance, estate, and donation purposes.
Martha Richardson is a member of the Board of Advisors at the Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, Burlington and serves on their Collections Committee. In addition, Martha is an Advisory Committee member of Gateway Arts, a non-profit organization in Brookline that supports artists with disabilities. Formerly, she was an Overseer at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln and served on their Collections Committee. For 10 years, Martha was also a Brookline Library Foundation Board Member.
