Morgan, John, John Morgan letter to Richard Redgrave, 1855 April 21
- Call Number:
- MSS 22
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Morgan, John
- Title(s):
- John Morgan letter to Richard Redgrave
- Date:
- 1855 April 21
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Part of Collection:
- Box 2, folder 89
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copyright UndeterminedThe collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Scope and Content:
- My dear Sir, I beg your indulgence for a few moments while I state to you a position of some difficulty. You remember when I knew you I was an ornamentist earning my 300 a year – Having determined to become what I had always longed to be, a painter, I thought at my age no time was to be lost if anything was to be achieved and so I threw myself right into it as the shortest way – Failing most as I did in the mechanique of painting, and finding I could for small expense acquire it in France, I determined to go. I did so and every reason to be glad of it. At first I relied upon what I had saved for funds, but having made progress and my works, become marketable, a dealer agreed to take pictures [from] me to the extent of £16 a month if I chose to send them – an arrangement which was most important to me—I have been engaged on works for the Academy for the last 7 months from which of course I have derived nothing, & which are now equally of course shut up till August intending the moment they were finished to turn to my sixteen pounds a month – and now just when I am exhausted by so long a money fast, and stretch out my hands to take it, my dealer pleading few customers and heavy stock, fails in his engagement- This though to some extent natural in him, is absolutely fatal to me – At home bad enough, but in a foreign country and with a family most serious- You will smile and say that to all the preamble hangs a tale. There does. I have within the last year executed 3 pictures having origin in the events of the time and among the people of Paris which have brought one more praise than any thing I have yet done. One “News from Russia[?]” the 2nd “The Russian[?] Loan,” which are now in the collection of Mr Bell. The third “The Return from the War” just sent to the Academy – I have a fourth in preparation “The St. Petersburgh Dispatches” which I expect will be the most successful of the four. It is full of point, and introduces the Souave[?] and many picturesque costumes of Paris, and contains[?] precisely those points of character n which I best succeed.— Now I am going to ask Mr. Redgrave to let me paint this for him—Its expense will be fifteen guineas, framed. I wish I cd. plead another reason for I shd. Be glad to see it in your collection, as I feel sure it will be successful and when this struggle which is very hard, is over, and my works are more remunerative and my pleasure will consist in more than what comes from the art itself, I shall have to remember the kindness of Mr. Redgrave, for kindness it will be. I would have called, but I heard from one of your assistants how your time is engaged. Believe me Sir, most respectfully, John Morgan. [Written on very fragile tracing paper]
- Additional Notes:
- Rue Pigalle 45, Paris
- Physical Description:
- 1 sheet (4 pages) : autograph letter, signed ; 21 x 26 cm folded to 21 x 13 cm
- Genre:
- Correspondence
- Subject Terms:
- ArtistsEtchersPaintersPaintingWomen painters
- Associated Places:
- Great Britain
- Associated People/Groups:
- Boughton, George Henry, 1834-1905Chalon, Alfred Edward, 1780-1860Cockerell, C. R. (Charles Robert), 1788-1863Cooke, Edward William, 1811-1880Cope, Charles West, 1811-1890Eastlake, Charles Lock, Sir, 1793-1865Etching Club (London, England)Exposition universelle de Paris en 1855Faed, Thomas, 1825-1900Frith, William Powell, 1819-1909Gilbert, John, 1817-1897Goodall, Edward A.Haden, Francis Seymour, 1818-1910Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 1834-1894Holl, Francis, 1815-1884Horsley, John Callcott, 1817-1903Hunt, William Holman, 1827-1910Inchbold, John William, 1830-1888Knight, John Prescott, 1803-1881Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, Baron, 1830-1896Lewis, Charles George, 1808-1880Linnell, WilliamMaclise, Daniel, 1806-1870Millais, John Everett, 1829-1896O'Neill, Henry, 1798-1880Poynter, Edward John, 1836-1919Redgrave, Richard, 1804-1888Richmond, George, 1809-1896Roberts, David, 1796-1864Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain)Scott, William Bell, 1811-1890Smirke, Sydney, 1798-1877Stanfield, George ClarksonStreet, George Edmund, 1824-1881Tayler, Frederick, 1802-1889Waterhouse, Alfred, 1830-1905Westmacott, Richard, 1799-1872
- Finding Aid Title:
- Letters to Richard Redgrave
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11762.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3450125
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3450125?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1