The Cotman Letters 1834

To Dawson Turner Esq
G[rea]t Yarmouth,
Norfolk.
March 8, 1834.
27 Charlotte St
Bloomsbury.

Dear Sir,
I am just returned from Sir Fr[anci]s Palgrave, where I have been to lay the following plan before him, for his opinion & advice. The plan is as follows. I have for more than two years wished to publish – or rather have published for me – a work in metzotint, similar in effect to Turner’s ‘Liber Studiorum’. The times & my circumstances were against it. The annuals are now passé and unfashionable. Some more artist like is asked for from someone.
Mr. Harriott’s sketches of many parts of the Continent are before me – with the entire power, and perhaps permission, to make my own. They are very fine and ought not to be lost to the world. My plan is to select from these and to make about ten or twenty Drawings, to lay them before the College publisher, hear his opinion, and, presently, if warranted by his opinion, for him to publish them. The prospectus I have not as yet found, but it will embrace views of buildings and scenery at Orleans, Angers, Tours, Mt. St. Michael, Nantes, Saumure, Blois, Amboise, Cha[r]tres, Caen, St. Maltusin, &c, &c, and parts of Normandy, Danube, Seine. To be dedicated to the Rev[eren]d W[illia]m Otter, Principal of King’s College, London, and to the Governors and Patrons of King’s College, London. This may, if judiciously done, command the attention & patronage of the whole establishment from the King to the professors, from the professors to the masters, & masters to the Collegians & scholars. May, or will it not? At all events I think it worth trying. Look at the list & host of names attached to the College. They shall have such a title page that has not yet been seen – a high tory one, full of arms to their hearts’ content – and a Book at the Secretary’s for Autograph subscribers’ names. The Prospectus to be headed with the Royal Arms & the Arms of the College – and one hung up & framed in the hall of the College, where everyone goes and must see it – that being the posting place for everything connected with it. This, too, will be a card for other things – in short a direct advertisement.
The title of the volume (not as yet formed) ‘From Drawings by J. S. Cotman, Professor of Drawings & Painting to King’s College,