| Description | During the Sotheby's sale of 1979 Volume VI and the majority of its contents was purchased by Leighton House. However when the collection was dismantled and sold in lots, the National Portrait Gallery acquired 17 loose letters that originated from Volume VI.
The correspondence includes letters from Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie (née Thackeray) to G. F. Watts and Mary Seton Watts in which she writes of Watts' wedding to Mary Fraser Tytler, Ritchie sending her book to Seton Watts, Ritchie's children, the death of Sir Frederic Leighton, art, visiting Limnerslease and Watts' ill health; a letter from Douglas William Freshfield to Ritchie discussing the need for a school or museum for young artists; a letter from Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield to Watts regarding a portrait commission.
Material is made up of loose letters arranged in intellectual order referring to the running order of letter numbers, awarded prior to the collection's dismantlement. Items sold in separate lots not bought by the National Portrait Gallery may be held at other institutions or in private collections. |