| Description | Volume XV is made up of correspondence to/from Watts and his Victorian contemporaries largely relating to portraiture, poetry and the arts.
The correspondence includes letters with Sir Edwin Henry Landseer regarding portrait commissions; with Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury regarding portrait sittings; with John Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount of Ossington regarding Watts as a sculptor and painter, Watts' bust of 'Clytie', the Ovid and the story of Clytie; with Countess Charlotte Spencer regarding visiting Little Holland House for a sitting; with Henry Edward Manning regarding portrait sittings; with Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia; with Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel regarding poetry; with Sir Walter Besant regarding Mrs Wymes, the Survey of London; with Maria Cecylia Nathalia Janotha regarding Julia Margaret Cameron's photograph of Tennyson; with George Du Maurier regarding old age, marriage, visiting Watts; with Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema regarding Watts' contribution to the Eaton testimonial; with Mary Henrietta Kingsley; with Austen Dobson regarding Watts' studio, admiration for 'Love and Death', a poem regarding Watts; with Frederic Hamilton Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava regarding visiting Watts, the painter Henrietta Rae; with Samuel Rutherford Crockett; with John Morely, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn regarding letters from W. E. Gladstone to Watts; with George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon regarding portrait sitting, Watts receiving the Order of Merit award; with Annie Louisa Swynnerton; with Sir Anthony Panizzi regarding portrait sittings; with Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi regarding teaching, the perception of art; with the Earl of Roseberry [Rosebery] regarding portrait sittings, Scharf's retirement from the National Portrait Gallery; with Miss Jekyll; with Thomas Hughes regarding a Macmillan engraving, portrait sittings; with Sir Andrew Clark regarding portrait sittings; with Mrs Willett; with Jerome Bonaparte; with Lorenzo Bartolini; with Henry Danby Seymour regarding an offer to buy a work; with Henry Austin Bruce, Lord Aberdare and Lady Norah Creina Blanche Aberdare regarding illness, the Crimean War, Watts as a professional painter, Watts' painting 'The Good Samaritan' which was dedicated to Thomas Bright of Manchester and dedicated to Manchester Town Hall, Watts working towards a contribution to the nation, painting Lord and Lady Aberdare; with Miss Dorothy Tennant (later Lady Dorothy Stanley); with Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens; with Hallam Tennyson; with Maria Jackson.
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. |