The Cotman Collection | 140

The Cotman Letters 1804-1833

Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/3/1/2
Page: 140


  • Description

    A turn of tide...my pupils increase.

    Letter from J. S. Cotman to Dawson Turner, 10 Nov 1827.

    Date: 10 Nov 1827

  • Transcription

    (pencil notes) 115
    [Norwich]
    Dawson Turner Esq
    Yarmouth
    November 10th 1827
    My dear Sir,
    I have obtruded myself upon your notice whilst I was wretched in heart, broken & in despair – all my efforts I found unavailing to raise myself into notice or even above the prospects of a prison.
    A tide has I hope – and I sincerely thank my God and my Friends – at last set in my favour. Reputation, and consequently a fair standing amongst my friends, is what I have worked hard for - desired - above all temporal things. And without feeling that I deserved them for my industry, if not for my talent, I should perhaps, ere this, have ceased to struggle, even for my Family. For many weeks it was literally one overwhelming flood of despairing thoughts that made every separate atom of my composition a separate torture. Thank God it is past, and I knew my Friends. It has been a bitter but a useful lesson.
    My dear Sir, it will give you pleasure, and I take the first moment to do it, to say I shall with all possible expedient commence a series of drawings – for reputation and to please Miss Hunt who has kindly offered to issue(?) my views – I hope, for profit-
    I once worked for money without a Heart – lost reputations &profit. I worked to please my Friends, whose intentions were evidently to serve one – and I succeeded. T’was an equivalent to Reputation. And when those drawings were publicly sold, they fond purchases at advanced prices. My dear Sir, I value your constant and steady friendship for me, which has been sadly tried through a long series of years. You deserve, and ought to have, the first notice of what I must consider a turn of tide – To sum up the whole, my pupils increase, with a prospect of more; The heresy of a certain style certainly losing ground; my determination of going on with Drawing for reputation, and with that (I hope still, you see) profit.

A turn of tide...my pupils increase.