Cotmania. Vol. II. 1927-8

{diary entry}
July 9. 1928 dined with L.G. Duke at 24 King St. Portman Sq. His collection is most carefully selected & full of quality. He has an early 'Turner' - c. 18 x 12. a wooded bank at top, a one arched bridge & a rushing cascade. The upper part like my sketch 'Beddgelart, Aug 19. 1800' - the rest like the Leeds Gallery's Beddgelert Bridge' ?is it a Cotman c. 1801?
He has a small edition of the 'Cader Idris, from Barmouth Sands' 14½ x 21½. sold to [P illegible] at Christies 2.6.27 for 430.10.0. from the Brocklebank Collection - mountains behind, boats leaning towards each other, water, [mud?] foreground, with anchors. fairly satisfactory. c 8 x 13 (copy of the large drawing can be obtained at the Tate)
He has a most interesting 'Gordale' - "P.S. Munn 1803" c. 16 x 10. watercolour, of a stream rushing down a ravine: 3 figures - was J.S.C with Munn in Yorks: in 1803?
He has a pencil drawing, not good. probably by J.J.C.

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{newspaper cutting}
THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH" EXHIBITION <at 'Olympia'>
Among the pictures, which are hung in a very chastely designed pavilion, there are at least half a dozen which would justify a visit to Olympia if nothing else were there. First of all there is the "Panshanger Madonna and Child," by Raphael, one of those exasperatingly perfect compositions which arouse something like resentment whenever the name of the artist is mentioned. Hardly less famous is "The Wilton Diptych," representing Richard II. before the Virgin, lent by the Earl of Pembroke which, if its claim to be English of the 14th century can be supported, should enable us to hold up our heads for ever in places where they talk about Primitives. An unrecorded Holbein, a small "Portrait of a Lady," probably a member of the Lowther family, Titian's "Portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti" - the picture produced in Court by Ruskin in his dispute with Whistler to show what he meant by noble painting - Raeburn's "The MacNab," Crome's "The Willow Tree" - "wife" of "The Poringland Oak" - Cotman's "Silver Birches," and the two landscapes by Richard Wilson are other pictures which rank as masterpieces. With "The Ugly Duchess," by Quentin Matsys, and "The Monarch of the Glen," by Landseer, the picture gallery cannot be said to lack the interest that is called circumstantial.
<'The Times' 19.7.28>