About

The Gallery

Piano Nobile was established by Dr Robert Travers in 1985. The gallery has been based in Holland Park for over twenty years and is today run by Robert and his son Matthew Travers. In 2019, Piano Nobile opened a further space on Portland Road to support the gallery’s growing exhibition programme.

The gallery plays an active role in the market for twentieth-century British and international art. With curated exhibitions, a refined aesthetic and rigorous scholarship, we seek to source and present exceptional works of art. We work with public and private collections and institutions, tailoring to the specific needs of each accordingly. The gallery acts as both a principal and an agent, and we offer a range of services to private buyers and sellers including appraisal, acquisition and dispersal.

The name ‘Piano Nobile’ derives from an art business established by Robert’s grandparents in Rome after the First World War. Based in the Via Sistina, the gallery sold a range of work from Italian old masters to contemporary paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. In a tribute to the old family company, piano nobile is an Italian phrase for the principal floor of a palazzo – the place where the best art is shown.

Collaborations & Research

Piano Nobile places a special emphasis on research and has collaborated with many of the leading art historians of twentieth-century British art. Under an in-house imprint, Piano Nobile Publications, we regularly work together with external specialists and curators to produce authoritative books and exhibition catalogues that further the understanding of our specialist period. Recent publications have been long listed for the William M.B. Berger Prize.

The gallery enjoys a strong working relationship with many leading museums in Europe and the US, especially those involved with twentieth-century British art, regularly lending to museums and enhancing its own exhibition programme with museum loans. Piano Nobile works with a range of institutions including Tate Britain, The Courtauld, Dulwich Picture Gallery, the National Gallery of Ireland, the British Council Collection, the Government Art Collection, Southampton City Art Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, The Charleston Trust, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Ben Uri Museum & Gallery, MK Gallery, the Garden Museum, IVAM in Valencia, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Petit Palais in Paris, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Museum MORE and the Jewish Museum in the Netherlands and the Yale Center for British Art in the US.

The Ruth Borchard Collection & Self-Portrait Prize

Piano Nobile is responsible for the Ruth Borchard Collection, the UK’s only dedicated public collection of self-portraits by British and Irish artists. Between 1958 and 1971, Ruth Borchard collected one-hundred self-portraits by British and British-based artists. Today, it consists of three collections. The Original collection consists of Borchard's initial acquisitions; Next Generation collection includes work by contemporary British, Irish and UK-resident artists; and the Early collection includes a growing number of self-portraits by British and Irish artists from the early twentieth century.

The gallery also founded the biennial Self-Portrait Prize which celebrates contemporary self-portraiture, perpetuating the values of the Ruth Borchard Original Collection. The prize offers a unique opportunity for both established and emerging artists to compete for a £10,000 prize, to have their work included in a curated exhibition, and a chance to be purchased by the Next Generation Collection.

For more information, visit the Ruth Borchard Collection website.