COLLIER, John (1850-1934). Portrait painter.
Group of eleven Autograph Letters Signed to various correspondents, 1882-1919 where dated From 7 Chelsea Embankment, 4 Marlborough Place, and North House, 69 Eton Avenue.

To an unnamed correspondent, sending a contribution to the Artists' Benevolent Fund; to [?Charles] Rossiter, 2 November 1887 (a fortnight before Collier's wife, the daughter of Thomas Henry Huxley, died in Paris), deploring the behaviour of Mr Kelly and the Archbishop of Canterbury who 'seemed to be making a quite unnecessary fuss about the lecture'; a long letter relating to the proceedings of a Council, 1 March '1891' ('your views are entitled to every deference, but rules are rules'); paying a small debt on behalf of his sister, 1893; to Stephen Paget, asking to join the Research Defence Society, 1908; to Mr Barratt about a picture he had given to the Adelaide Art Gallery, 1919; giving thanks to an (unfortunately) unnamed correspondent for praise of his portrait, undated; thanking 'Sybil' for congratulations (on the birth of a 'brat', who is to be called Joan, to his second wife, Ethel, also the daughter of Thomas Henry Huxley (after 1889); offering a frame ('Two guineas as it stands - £3.5 if it were done up pretty thoroughly'); and to his ?sister Rita telling her that the studio was to be cleaned out and that Miss Layard would not be able to visit on Sunday.

'... I feel that I can now be satisfied that the idea of your father that I have endeavoured to convey in my portrait will not be a misleading one. It is a great responsibility making a pictorial record of an eminent man and even should the general public approve of it I should not be happy about it unless I had also the approval of his family ...'

£350 [No: 26643]