Gainsborough, Thomas, 1727-1788

Abstract: The collection primarily consists of an album filled with drawings, prints, ephemera, and manuscript poems, letters, dedicatory inscriptions, and notes collected or created by John Charles Denham. The album contains 107 small drawings and sketches in graphite, ink, and watercolor by prominent British artists from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries such as Richard Parkes Bonington, John Flaxman, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Paul Sandby, J. M. W. Turner, and Benjamin West, as well as...

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Ruskin gives Heaton some advice on what to see at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, praising works by Paul Veroneses, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, Anthony van Dyck and Thomas Gainsborough. Ruskin thanks Heaton for "all [her] notes.". [Date provided by Surtees: Mid-July 1857]

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AL, dated "Sunday morning," with typed transcript.

Accompanied by four engravings after Gainsborough: his self portrait, "The Brook by the Way," "Landscape and Cows," and "The Watering Place," and a newspaper clipping about Gainsborough from an unidentified publication.

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Written from London. Offering to trade Gainsborough's "Girl with Pigs" for a damaged "Venus and Adonis" copied by Titian. Ingamells no. 153.

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Piozzi still worries about the fate of the landscape painting. The "brawn" she ordered to cure Mr. Piozzi's itching has been lost on the road. Piozzi also remarks on the growing local population. People mentioned: Sophia Hoare, Barclay, Mr. Piozzi, Mr. Moore, Mr. Rogers and Lady Keith.

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Piozzi discusses Maria Dore's improving health. She asks Dr. Thackeray to send a servant to find out what happened to a valuable Gainsborough landscape she sent to her daughter as a bridal gift. She also comments on the war. People mentioned: Maria Dore, Sophia Hoare (Mrs. Piozzi's daughter), Gainsborough, Lord Keith and Buonaparte.

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Piozzi says that the landscape painting has been found. Mr. Piozzi is plagued with gout. Mrs. Piozzi hopes the Prince of Portugal will land safely and that Lord Strangford's health will improve. She also discusses the Queen's "sudden return to her senses." People mentioned: Mrs. Merrick Hoare, Mr. Piozzi, the Prince of Portugal, Lord Strangford, the "Old Queen" and Maria Dore.

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The collection comprises correspondence, notebooks, writings, and other manuscript material by or about the artist Joshua Reynolds.

Scope and Contents: "May 17 '74. My dear Mr Lewis, your letter was sent on to me at Paris, and greatly delighted I was to know you were pleased with the appreciation of your wonderful picture. You do not think so highly of your own work as your admirers do, or you could not be surprised at any sum being offered for one of your chief pictures. I am sure Mr Graham's offer was bona fide, as he asked me to find out if the possessor would take the sum mentioned, and as he was willing to give it. £10,000 is a...

Abstract: The collection comprises 15 letters from Thomas Woolner to John Frederick Lewis, written between 1874 and 1876. It also includes 5 letters from Woolner to Lewis’s wife, Marian Harper, one letter from Lewis to dealer William Vokins, and several letters from Woolner’s wife and daughter. The letters primarily concern Lewis’s declining health—he died several months after the last letter in the collection—Woolner’s admiration for Lewis’s painting, updates on the politics of the Royal Academy and...