Cotmania. Vol. XI. 1935-6

Telegrams, Tadley

Pamber Heath,
Basingstoke
Hants.

Dec 27. 1935.

My dear Sydney.

I have read through your Cotman, quite carefully and attentively and doing my best to remember each drawing as you mention it. Consequently it took some time. It has interested me enormously, and you have done your work splendidly. You have made every stage of this life & every date alive, explaining every change in his work & every apparent blank in his series. No one but yourself could have done it & you have done it shortly, convincingly, & very well. Of course there are things which no one can explain & there are still puzzles; that is inevitable with a character like Cotman's. But you make that character clear & that is as near a full explanation as possible. You never lose your head about him & never want sympathy with him & when his work ceases to be attractive, the man becomes more interesting. In the end you become really eloquent. I don't know which is the more impressive, the preparation of all the material - drawings, letters, testimonies, or the use that you have made of it. I know how difficult it is to combine biography with appraisement of work - and that is a point about which I may have something to say in detail if you want me to go through your book again - and I admire immensely the way that you have done it.
Of course the book has interested me from first to last. Even after our talks, it is full of new