In 1944, the first substantial monograph of the British sculptor Henry Moore was published by Lund Humphries. Produced under wartime conditions, Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings was a remarkable achievement, and its success led to subsequent books on contemporary British artists, including Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Paul Nash. The driving force behind these ambitious publications was Peter Gregory (1887-1959), director and later chairman of Lund Humphries, who shunned the limelight, preferring anonymity. Yet, as Valerie Holman shows in this impeccably researched book, the shadowy figure who described himself simply as “a businessman” was highly influential in the British art world: a friend and supporter of artists, architects and writers, an assiduous publisher, and integral to the development of several key arts organisations.

Gregory believed that for a society to flourish it was essential to nurture the arts. Across 12 concise chapters, covering both his professional activities and personal friendships, Holman examines the multiple ways in which he pursued that objective. Born to a well-to-do family, Gregory was raised in Edinburgh then Bradford, where he developed an appreciation for art and poetry. On leaving school in 1907 he joined the leading Bradford printing and publishing firm Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd, being promoted to publishing manager in 1911 and then co-director with Eric Humphries in 1919. Working between the firm’s London and Yorkshire offices, he promoted good design, excellence in printing and an environment in which artists and designers thrived.

In 1932, Lund Humphries’s London office moved to 12 Bedford Square, where Gregory staged exhibitions by notable figures such as Man Ray, Jan Tschichold and the firm’s design consultant Edward McKnight Kauffer. When war arrived, he was seconded to the Ministry of Information as a press censor before becoming secretary of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee where, alongside Kenneth Clark, he commissioned works of war art. Renewing his focus on publishing after the war, he overcame the challenges of austerity to produce numerous high-quality monographs that solidified his conviction that living artists deserved the same serious treatment as the Old Masters.

Artists’ go-to publisher

Gregory supported many British artists, and his exacting standards and ability to empathise with them made him their go-to publisher. Several works from his collection are among this book’s plentiful illustrations, including Moore’s marble Half-Figure (1932), which became his first sculpture exhibited in a London public gallery when Gregory loaned it to the Tate in 1937. He also commissioned works, including Patrick Heron’s Horizontal Stripe Painting (1957-8), an enormous abstract composition of horizontal bands conceived for the reception area of 12 Bedford Square and subsequently purchased by the Tate. He also supported artists by establishing the innovative Gregory Fellowships at the University of Leeds (1950-80), which for 30 years provided painters, sculptors, poets and occasionally musicians with the time and space in which to develop their work.

A striking aspect of Gregory’s career is the sheer number of arts organisations with which he was associated. In 1943 he was appointed chairman of the nascent Design Research Unit, famous for its corporate designs. He served on the executive committee of the Contemporary Art Society, advising on acquisitions (1947-58), sat on the Visual Arts panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain (1954-56) and, most dear to his heart, played a significant role in establishing the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1946, serving as honorary treasurer. As its director Dorothy Morland noted, he was “always there when needed, tactfully offering ideas, contacts, financial assistance and a calming presence”.

Holman has evidently spent hours poring over the archives, but who, really, was Peter Gregory? It is a question only answered in part by this book, which is less a biography and more a marvellous cultural history viewed through one man’s life and work. As the author concedes, when it came to Gregory’s personal life her sources were patchy: his diaries cover a limited period and his correspondence is inconsistent. Instead of a rounded picture, we have “a composite, if sketchy, portrait”. Where this study excels is in illuminating Gregory’s extraordinary legacy. Remembered primarily as a publisher, he is revealed here as one of the 20th century’s most dedicated champions of contemporary art and design. As Moore once said, “There are few men who have done so much, so modestly for young living artists.”

• Valerie Holman, Peter Gregory: Publisher and Patron of Modern British Artists, Lund Humphries, 160pp, 16 colour & 244 b/w illustrations, £35 (hb), published 1 October 2024

• David Trigg is an independent writer, critic and art historian. He is the author of Money in Art (HENI, 2024)