| Description | Volume X is largely made up of correspondence to/from Watts and his group of female friends, including American Miss Mary Gertrude Mead (later Mrs Edwin Austin Abbey), and correspondence with Henry Elford Luxmoore.
The correspondence includes letters with Mrs Jane Nassau Senior regarding engraving and photography, the Prinseps, Freshwater, Isle of Eight, Watts creating a head of Mrs Nassau Senior, payment and donation to charity, Watts' fresco at Lincoln's Inn, subscribing to the Orphan Fund, Octavia Hill, Watts tutoring Nassau Senior's nephew, Gerald, the building of New Holland House; with Miss Mary Gertrude Mead (later Mrs Edwin Austin Abbey) regarding Mrs Barrington, visiting Manchester to view Charles Hilditch Rickards' collection of Watts' work, Watts' work being exhibited in America, Watts sending his works to America to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Watts' anxiety over the exhibition, a misunderstanding relating to a news article written by Mr Gosse, the copying of Watts' work in America, Watts allowing for his work to remain in America for an extended period, Watts' donation of the painting 'Love and Life' to the American nation, Watts' marriage to Mary Fraser Tytler; with Henry Elford Luxmoore regarding Watts' painting 'Sir Galahad' at Eton, young men going to war, Mary Seton Watts.
Material is made up of bound and 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. |