Anton Zwemmer

Anton Zwemmer (1892–1979) was a Dutch-born British bookseller, book distributor, art dealer, publisher and collector who founded Zwemmer's Bookshop and the Zwemmer Gallery in London. He was a "friend and patron of many leading artists", from Picasso to Henry Moore and Wyndham Lewis, and he played "an important role in spreading knowledge and appreciation of modern art" in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life Anton Zwemmer was born in Haarlem, The Netherlands on 18 February 1892. His parents were Arie and Baukje Huizinga Zwemmer who were of modest means. before moving to Amsterdam where he took up a position with the booksellers Kirberger & Kesper, a specialist in English literature,

The Zwemmer Gallery became a "mecca" for British artists and a centre for the modern art movement in Britain, staging shows on such artists and sculptors as Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Edward Bawden, as well as, in 1932, an exhibition on the Curwen Press. Through his gallery, as through his bookselling and publishing, Anton Zwemmer's constant goal was to "support the recent work of modern artists".

From 1944 Anton Zemmer published, with Lund Humphries, a multivolume work on the sculpture and drawings of his friend Henry Moore and in 1949, he collaborated with Skira to publish Stuart Gilbert's translation of André Malraux's two volume work, The Psychology of Art. His inferred spouse, Lilian Zwemmer (17 May 1893 – 23 April 1971), had in 1971 been living at the same address.

Legacy In his Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Henry Moore observed: "I could mention eight or nine such individuals (apart from artists themselves) whose efforts during my lifetime have helped to change the whole climate of the English art world (...) one of them is Anton Zwemmer (...)."