Cotmania. Vol. VII. 1931-2

Oct: 1931. The Leicester Galleries have an exh[ibitio]n of ‘drawings old & new’.
[Printed catalogue extracts begin]
\28. J. S. COTMAN Cottage, Normandy
* 31. J. S. COTMAN King’s College
\36. J. S. COTMAN Mountain Scene
\43. J. S. COTMAN Ruined Castle
[Printed catalogue extracts end]
No. 28 is a poor pencil drawing.
" 31 is a slight drawing of a fence, ‘drawing copy’.
" 36. is on buff paper, with some Chinese white, very perfunctory & artificial – they asked 26 guineas for it!
" 43 is a hard, poorish drawing copy.
Oct: 26, 1931. Went to Lady Margaret Hall to the rooms of Miss Kathleen Edwardes. She has a small (c 7 x 12) early Cotman, c 1802, belonging to her father E. E. Edwardes. It seems to be above Tan-y-Bwlch – very like the one Thomson had & sold to Nettlefold. It is very beautiful in tone & composition, comparable with Duke’s ‘Cader Idris from Barmouth Sands’. I saw it about 2 years ago when it was on loan at the V & A Museum.
---------------“---------------
This is from the Catalogue of the Autumn Exh[ibitio]n of Matthews and Brooke of Bradford. It is the dud shown to me by Bowden, Aug. 31, 1931.
[Printed catalogue extract] JOHN SELL COTMAN, A.R.W.A. Near Woodbridge
---------------“---------------
Nov: [4 – crossed out] 2, 1931. Went to Colnaghi’s & bought Bellingham Smith’s ‘In Norwich Cath[edra]l’. Bashet[?] said he c[oul]d not sell it as a J.S.C., as P.M. Turner had pronounced it to be a M.E.C. – altho’ Laurence Binyon considered it to be by J.S.C. Saw Bellingham Smith & showed him the pencil drawings I was taking to Wallace Heaton to photograph.
Nov: 3, 1931. Met a French Canadian at Skeath’s[?], who took me by bus to see Philip Robson’s Coll[ectio]n of w[ater]c[olour]s at Blackheath. Only Orrocks, Dodgsons, etc, & a poor De Wint.