Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/7
Page: Inserted after fol. 20
Description
Letter to Kitson from Paul Oppé
Oppé discusses the photograph of Cotman’s Barnard Castle sent by Kitson; Cotman's Greta Woods, owned by Dr Lewis Fry; a Cotman in Bath – difficult to reach from Dorset; his recent visit to London for a meeting
Date: 1932
Transcription
North Eggardon Farm
Askerswell
Dorchester.
Aug. 4, 1932
Mr dear Sydney,
Thankyou very much for the photograph of Barnard Castle. It looks very fine indeed; possibly the overexposure has given an added effect of contrast & filled in some of the white spaces; anyhow it is a magnificent drawing & it is only right & proper that it should be yours. I saw Norman on Monday and we gossiped about it & you. He too is completely happy that the drawing should be in your possession & not his.
Secondary reflections are (1) that your acquisition of the Barnard Castle does someth[ing] to compensate for the loss of Fry’s Greta Woods. But it is remarkable that he hasn’t felt the damage done to the drawing. Perhaps some people are so much accustomed to their possessions that they don’t notice any change in them just as others exaggerate the importance of any changes. More probably he has always been as you say strangely indifferent to the drawing &
[Note in margin:] Reflections (2) and (3) seem to be memory!