Lot 280
British Victorian artists
Auction: 16 May 2008 at 12:00 BST
Description
65 autograph letters signed to the art critic James Dafforne, from John Frederick Lewis, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edward J. Poynter, Francis Danby, Frederick and Edward Goodall, F.R. Pickersgill, Sir C.L. Eastlake, J.C. Hook, B.R. Haydon, W.P. Frith, W.E. Frost, J.C. Horsley, George Cattermole, Sir John Gilbert, Henry Lejeune, Louis Haghe, W.F. Witherington, John Linnell, Richard Ansdell, William Dyce, T.S. Cooper, F.D. Hardy, J.G. Naish, G.A. Storey, Frank Holl, Richard Beavis, L.J. Pott, and T.J. Barker, & others, mostly responding to proofs of articles by Dafforne on their work, together with printed copies of the articles themselves, being a series in The Art-Journal entitled 'British Artists: Their Style and Character', most items laid down but others loose, in two quarter morocco green cloth albums, gilt lettering on spine ("British Artists" volumes I and III), 1850s-70s, rubbed, upper cover of one album detached
Footnote
Note: James Dafforne, a prominent Victorian critic, wrote a major series of articles on the life and work of prominent living artists. He sent the artists themselves proofs before publication, inviting comments and corrections. Many of these responses, which came from many of the best-known artists of the period (with the notable exception of the pre-Raphaelites), include detailed commentary on their own work.