Theo Waddington was born to a family of art dealers. His grandmother and great grandmother were private dealers in Germany and his father, Victor, had a gallery in Dublin at the end of 1957. Victor moved to London and opened Waddington Galleries with his son Leslie. In 1963 father and son split up. Victor Waddington opened a gallery under his own name while Leslie continued to operate Waddington Galleries which is still located on Cork Street in London to this day.

George Waddington, who was Victor’s youngest brother, worked in the Dublin Gallery but when Victor moved to London, George decided to move to Montreal where he opened Waddington Galleries Inc in 1959.

The Dublin Gallery which started in 1930 represented a group of Irish and international artists including Yeats, Moore, Derain, Matisse, Dufy, Avery, Hayden, Soutine and Pascin. It also represented O’Neill, Dillion, Middleton, Keating, O’Sullivan, Jellett, Hone, Nicholls, Rakoczi and Hall.

While in Dublin Victor became known as the ‘Yeats Man’. He mounted exhibitions in Dublin and he was responsible for organising exhibitions at the Tate Gallery London, The Musee d’ Art Moderne in Paris as well as exhibitions in New York and Montreal.

Theo joined his father’s gallery in 1963 where he served an apprenticeship learning the carpentry of his future trade. It was through this connection that after Victor’s death in 1981 Theo took up the mantle of becoming the ‘Yeats Man’. He also worked directly with the estates of Derain, Dufy, Matisse, Pascin, Hayden and Avery

Theo moved to Montreal in 1966 to take over his Uncle George’s Gallery and then opened galleries in Toronto, New York and in 1976 took over Victor’s Gallery in London. He later opened galleries in Boca Raton and Palm Beach in Florida.

Since March 2000 Theo has been working as a private dealer in England and Ireland. As well as representing the estates listed above, he has continued work with PJ Crook, Tom Ostenberg, Elisabeth Frink and the White Stag Group that includes the estates of Kenneth Hall and Basil Rakoczi.

Theo Waddington’s Irish Art Project started in 2003 and is planning the following exhibitions for 2008/9:

- Jack B Yeats watercolours drawing and illustrations for the Cuala Press. exhibition to be held in Dublin from September 10th - October 10th 2008

- The Yeats family John B Yeats, Jack B Yeats and Anne Yeats (father, son and granddaughter) to be held at the Fenton Gallery in Cork in September/October 2008

- Basil Rakoczi to be held at Charles Gilmore Gallery Belfast, Winter 2008/Spring 2009