Biography
Noel Evelyn (née Hughes), Lady Norton (1891-1972), known as Peter, and her cousin Marguerita 'Rita' Strettell established The London Gallery at 28 Cork Street, London in September 1936. It was initially a pioneering showcase for Bauhaus and Constructivist artists and they were supported by the guidance of Marcel Breuer (1902-1981), known to them affectionately as Lajkó, before he emigrated to USA. By 1938 she had sold it to Roland Penrose (1900-1984), who had organised the International Surrealist Exhibition (1936) at the New Burlington Galleries. He ran it with the Belgian artist and writer E. L. T. Mesens (1903-1971), who also wrote the gallery's publication The London Bulletin (1938-40), assisted by Humprey Jennings. The gallery soon became a centre for Surrealism in England.
Norton had supported the artist John Craxton after the war and invited him to Greece, where her husband by then was British Ambassador, in 1946. Craxton was later to settle in Chania in Crete. The London Gallery held a solo exhibition of Craxton's work in 1949 where, as its elected buyer for that year, artist and former Tate employee, Robin Ironside (1912-1965) purchased three artworks for the Contemporary Art Society,
