The Cotman Letters 1834
Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/3/1/3
Page: 229
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Description
Copy of letter from John Sell Cotman to Dawson Turner, 28 November 1834
Cotman asks Turner to excuse his past ingratitude. He realizes Turner was right not to lend him money [see MEC’s letter of 3 April 1834]. He now feels perfectly happy. He is particularly pleased with his lamp and his room. Turner is welcome to visit. He is preparing a house in Hunter Street to receive his family: it will be a fine place to live and to paint. He hopes Sir Francis and Lady Palgrave will visit. Turner is asked to thank Mr Brightwen for receiving orders for drawings. Cotman recalls Mrs Brightwen’s quotation (see his letters of 30 January and 25 February 1834). He is no longer superstitious (although he still has his black cat), and he is now on good terms with all his family. John Joseph, who has been copying the Old Masters, should succeed as an artist. Miles Edmund is teaching the pupils in Norwich and plans to move to London after Christmas. [James Duffield] Harding failed to obtain a post at London University. Cotman is heeding Turner’s admonitions about his work at King’s College.
Date: 28/11/1834
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Transcription
To/ Dawson Turner Esq
Great Yarmouth
Norfolk.
Nov: 28, 1834.(Note in pencil:] (written at 42 Hunter St, Brunswick Square)
43 Gerrard St., Soho.My dear Sir,
In good health, & good health to you, I take up pen to chat an Hour to you before going to Bed, and to unburthen my mind of a few things I wish you to be acquainted with. In early life I made myself a pedestal on which I determined to stand by my own exertions. It was too lofty a one, for I fell from it. I also made a code of laws by which I was determined to act. I have abused many of them – and, in the many, stood gratitude, which I thought I never could have broken. That also was broken. I have been ungrateful to you, my loved & valued friend of many a long year. If my acknowledging this to you can be any atonement, pray, my dear Sir, accept it. For my mind, at the time I thought you unkind, was not strong enough to see how very just you were to me & how well you looked for me to the then future. You refused me the money I asked of you, and it was a sleepless night I passed in your House after it. A money lending Friend, I now see, is not the best Friend a man can have. I have acted on your advice – and, as you then said, I sh[oul]d be if I did so, I am the happier for it. Though allow me to say at that time it went to my very soul. For who can part with his Hobby – be it ever so small a one – without deep, deep regret? Mine, for me, was a great Horse, almost my idol, my business, my existence, my pack-horse, and I its slave. And I knew if I lost it that I should be what I have been, a mere idler, wretched & sad. I have now been for more than a year all these – aye, even in London, most wretched and without doing anything but for the College. Thank God, whose merciful hand has raised me at last from this sad state. I feel now perfectly happy. I have commenced work in earnest. I have some of my books, a beautiful lamp and a most delicious color Box, a good workshop – with the prospect of a much better. Surrounded by considerate Friends,
