RA reveals secrets of the artists' best friend

The vital role of a French dealer in championing artists such as Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti and Georges Braque will be examined in an exhibition.

The Royal Academy of Arts is to present the first British show of works from the collection of influential gallery owner Aimé Maeght and his wife Marguerite.

It includes many personal items owned by Maeght's children and grandchildren and never seen in public. Maeght got to know many of the artists while they were working in the south of France when the Second World War broke out. When the war ended Mr Maeght's new friends, including Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Alexander Calder, persuaded him to open a gallery in Paris. He gave new impetus to their careers - as well as presiding over influential shows such as a 1947 Surrealism exhibition.

Ann Dumas, curator of the show, said so many galleries had closed during the German occupation that Maeght's gallery proved significant: "There was a big gap in artistic activity. It wasn't that he brought these artists to prominence, but he picked them up mid-career and gave them a big impetus."

The dealer promoted and represented many artists, but the show focuses on Miró, Giacometti, Braque and Calder partly because of their close relationships.

In many cases Maeght, who had trained as a lithographer, encouraged them to use new forms in their work such as in the largescale lithographs created by Miró when he was 75.

Isabelle, his 53-year-old granddaughter, said she remembered the likes of Braque as warmly as she did her grandfather: "There are a lot of very private and very emot ional things [ in the Royal Academy show].

"We wanted to show how we love to be with artists and how we work with them.You can't deal a work of art without friendship with the artist. That was my grandfather's personality and we continue that."

The family, who are well known in France, still work with artists in print and ceramic workshops.

Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque: Aimé Maeght and his Artists opens at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly on Saturday and will run until 2 January.