In 1880s Paris, the painters we now call legends could barely sell a thing. The official salons shut out Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh.
One place showed them anyway. Julien Tanguy ran a small colour shop at 14 rue Clauzel, and painters called him Père Tanguy, “Father Tanguy”. He sold them paint on credit, sometimes fed them, and sometimes took a canvas instead of cash. In his back room he hung the work nobody else would show, and sold it to anyone who walked in.
Van Gogh painted him three times, and in 1887 wrote to his brother that Tanguy had put one of his new canvases in the shop window.
Those canvases now hang in the world’s great museums. Gallery of the Ages is where they hang for the rest of us. We’re not Tanguy’s shop and claim no link to it. We’re inspired by how he worked: look after people, price good art fairly, and put great paintings where anyone can see them.
The artists are the legends. We just hold their work.