Desmond MacCarthy, ‘The Exhibition at the Grafton Galleries: Gauguin and Van Gogh’

For MacCarthy see headnote to no. io. MacCarthy as secretary to the first Post-Impressionist exhibition was also guide and apologist for the new paintings while the exhibition remained open. This article summarizes what he must have repeatedly told the curious and the hostile who visited the Grafton Galleries. MacCarthy was also responsible for the business arrangements and, as he pointed out in his book Memories (1953), in spite of the scandal which surrounded the show it was a financial success.