| Description | Volume IX is largely made up of correspondence to/from Watts and his group of female friends and to his assistant Thompson.
The correspondence includes letters with Tom and Laura Taylor; Helen Mary Tirard regarding painting sales; Watts' assistant Thompson regarding errands; Ida Verner regarding painting and Watts' marriage to Mary Fraser Tytler; J. K. Preston regarding painting; Mrs E. Villiers regarding Watts painting her family; Maria Theresa Earle regarding painting and patronage; Mrs Percy Wyndham regarding friendship, the busts 'Clytie' and 'Daphne', the Prinseps, the Royal Academy, paintings 'Orpheus and Eurydice' and 'Endymion', Watts' working patterns and his ill health, Watts' art legacy, money worries, Blanche's miscarriage, the formulation of the idea for 'Hope', the death Charles Campbell; Mrs Charles Wylie regarding the removal of Watts' wall paintings at Little Holland House prior to the building of 'New' Little Holland House, the building of Watts' studio at 'New' Little Holland House; Henry Tanworth Wells regarding exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the New Gallery, Watts' portrait of Sir Charles Dilke; Elsie M. Walker regarding Watts' advice on art; Lady Grace Wemyss regarding exhibitions, Auguste Rodin's work; sending works to be exhibited at the New Gallery and the Royal Academy; E. W. Hudson regarding Leighton's painting; Sir Wyke Bayliss regarding Bayliss' book and his contribution to art, Watts style of work, Bayliss' description of Burne-Jones; Watts as a symbolist painter; Aglaia Ionides Coronio regarding portrait sitting, Watts' disagreement with Alexander Constantine Ionides; Watts' offer to paint a picture for the Greek nation, 'Physical Energy'; Robert Bulwer-Lytton regarding a portrait sitting; Mrs Jane Nassau Senior regarding their friendship, modelling for Watts, Watts' ill health, Leighton's paintings, the death of Nassau Senior's father and brother, poetry, travel, Watts' 'Ondine' painting, Watts' painting at Westminster Hall.
Material is catalogued following the order of bound letters in volume, which are numbered in a running order, awarded prior to the dismantlement of the collection. Items sold in separate lots not bought by the National Portrait Gallery may be held at other institutions or in private collections. |