The Cotman Collection | 29

Cotmania. Vol. IX. 1933-4

Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/9
Page: p. 12 recto


  • Description

    Four clippings of newspaper articles

    Kitson annotation / Times article / Kitson annotation / Sunday Times article / Kitson annotation / Daily Telegraph article / Kitson annotation / Daily Telegraph clipping

    Date:

  • Transcription

    {Kitson annotation}

    The Times Nov: 2. 1933

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    {The Times article}

    BRITISH ART
    FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY

    At a luncheon given to the Press yesterday at the Royal Academy interesting information was given by the President about the Exhibition of British Art which I is to open to the public on January 6 1934, and continue through February and part of March. The exhibition "is expected not only to bring to our own people a keener appreciation of the achievements of their countrymen, but to show clearly to other nations the splendid part that the British School has played in the development of European art.'
    Perhaps the most welcome piece of news was that, for (his purpose, " British Art " is not to be regarded as synonymous with paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but that the exhibition will include a representative selection of such works of the medieval period as arc portable ; illuminated manuscripts, "Opus Anglicanum "—or ecclesiastical embroideries— alabaster and wood sculpture, tapestries and gold-smiths' work. One of the set of four seasons from the Sheldon tapestry is being lent by Lord Salisbury ; the embroideries will include an altar frontal of embroidered velvet from St. John's College, Oxford; both Universities and the City Companies are lending plate : there will be carvings from Winchester and Worcester Cathedrals; and English furniture will be shown
    Headed by the King, who is lending works from the Royal Collections, private owners of pictures are sending their best to the exhibition. Among important paintings already promised are " Salisbury " and "Stratford Mill on the Stour," by Constable ; M The Prince of Wales," "The Hon. Edward Bouverie," and 44 The Harvest-Waggon," by Gainsborough ; "The Duchess of Devonshire," "Lady Betty Foster," and "Lavinia. Countess Spencer," by Reynolds; "Lake Nemi," by Wilson ; and "Lady Hamilton," by Romney.
    The British school of water-colour painting will be fully represented in a special section, including picked works by Cotman, J. R. Cozens, Girtin, and Turner : and special attention is being I paid to sporting pictures

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    {Kitson annotation}

    The Sunday Times Nov: 5 1933

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    {article from The Sunday Times}

    By FRANK RUTTER

    It is to be hoped that one result of the Exhibition of British Art, to be opened next January at Burlington House, will be to persuade our fellow-countrymen to pay more attention to good English paintings, and less attention to the bad foreign paintings so extensively imported from abroad. If we neglect our best painters ourselves, we can hardly be surprised that people in other lauds have a poor opinion of English paint my generally. Our showmanship of nineteenth century British Art has been deplorable. With our fatal talent for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick, we take foreigners to the Tate Gallery to see the pictures of Millais and Holman Hunt, when we ought to be showing them the work of Alfred Stevens, Cotman. and Etty. Etty, in particular, has been shamefully neglected, and Mr. R. E. A. Wilson is to be very heartily congratulated on the line Etty Exhibition he has opened at 24, Ryder Street, St. James.

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    {Kitson annotation}

    Daily Telegraph
    11.11.33

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    {Daily Telegraph article}

    RECORD PRTCE FOR A GIRTIN DRAWING
    TURNER'S BOY FRIEND
    By A. C. R. CARTER

    In the first picture sale of the season at Christie's yesterday tribute was paid to the watercolour art of Tom Girtin. Hitherto the highest price given for any of his beautiful drawings was 220gs (for the 44 Tintern Abbey " five years ago), but when his "Morpeth Bridge " was offered yesterday the whole room rose to the bidding, which reached 310gs (Walker), with Mr. Alec Martin as the runner-up. This drawing was the artist's last work.
    Tom Girtin, who belonged to the French Huguenot family Guertin, is always remembered for his early association with Turner. As boys together they went out sketching, and the story goes that the lads used to receive half-a-crown and a supper from their patron. Dr. Monro.
    It is certainly true that, after Girtin died, on Nov. 9. 1802, at the early age of 27, Turner used to remark : "If Tom Girtin had lived I should have starved."
    Girtin has never had a big auction vogue, because most of his works are securely held in the national collections. There are over 100 in the British Museum, for example.
    There was genuine fervour in the bidding generally yesterday. The total realised was £3,755, and the Frank W. Keen collection sent from Birmingham, in which the Girtin drawing appeared, included some excellent works by John Sell Cotman of Norwich (1782-1842). Mr. Percy Turner giving 260gs for a classical landscape and Mr. W. Permain 170gs. for "Castle Acre Priory." "La Marina," by J. R. Cozens, brought 140gs (Gooden & Fox). On Thursday at'4 Robinson and Fisher's a wing of a triptych by Dirk Bouts fetched 300gs (Poyser).

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    {Kitson annotation}

    Daily Telegraph
    Nov 2 1933

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    {listing in Daily Telegraph}

    WATER-COLOURS
    W. Blake ..."The Wise and Foolish Virgins" Miss Carthew
    J. S. Cotman "New Bridge Durham" Sir Hickman Bacon
    J. R. Cocons "Albano Castel Gandolfo" Sir A. M. Daniel
    T. Girtin... "Rue Saint-Denis" Sir Hickman Bacon
    F. Towne... "Cascade at Ambleside" Miss Merrivale
    J. M. W. Turner "Blue Rigi" Mrs Walter Jones

Four clippings of newspaper articles