Below is a Register of Primary Sources in British art history, which we hope will be of interest and use to scholars; it is by no means a complete list. We will be updating it as new information comes in to us.

 

These sources could form the basis for submissions to the Walpole Society Volume, subject to agreement with the Editor.

 

We welcome suggestions of additional source material from members and non-members alike, which may be sent by email to the Editor: editor@walpolesociety.org.uk and the Executive Adminstrator:  admin@walpolesociety.org.uk.

 

 

Gandy notebook (British Library)
Ozias Humphrey transcribed a notebook with remarks by an Irish portrait painter about studio practice in the late 17th century London art world.

 

 

Sotheby notebooks (National Art Library)
James Sotheby kept notebooks with detailed records of the various pictures he bought in London during the later 17th century and these. His son also made contemporary transcriptions.

Humphry Correspondence (Royal Academy)

Part of William Upcott's collection, these were calendared by the Historic Manuscripts Commission in the 70s and are well catalogued by the RA, which calls them "one of the most important sources for any study of artistic circles in the second half of the eighteenth century." 

 

Royal Academy minutes/records (Royal Academy)

The Walpole Society published the minute books and all associated records of the RA for its first quarter century, under Reynolds's presidency

 

Painter Stainer records (Guildhall Library)

The minute books and apprenticeship records of the Painter Stainers Company are core records in the history of painting in the 17th century. While the apprentice records have been published (in 2003, by Cliff Webb for the Society of Genealogists), the minute books (which start in 1623) remain more obscure, though cited in various places. 

Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-73)

Cromek is a landscape painter in watercolour whose travelled in Italy and Greece in the1830s and 40s. There are quite a few manuscript sources that seem worth considering for publication. Some of this material is in family hands, there ismuch at Princeton University.

Cottonian Collection
At Plymouth Art Gallery (now called The Box) is a collection of 6,000 prints, 200 drawings and 2,000 books given by a 19th century philanthropist (William Cotton). The collection originated with a late 17th century customs officer but was mainly acquired by Charles Rogers (1711-84). The importance of the collection has long been recognised but it was only recently begun to be studied. The print collection "is one of the few 18th century British collections to have survived to the present in more or less intact, though not complete, form... it is one of the most important print collections in Britain, and offers certain insights that cannot be matched elsewhere. For not only are there the prints mounted in 41 albums, there is a correspondence of over 150 letters, and accounts that reveal when and where a number of the items were acquired." (Antony Griffiths in Print Quarterly 1993). 

Society of Artists of Great Britain archive (Royal Academy)
The records of the UK's first exhibiting society survive pretty much in their entirety and are far more extensive than for the RA, comprising minutes, accounts, letters, petitions, etc. Their publication was one of the earliest goals of the Walpole Society.

20th century records (Tate Britain)
Tate Britain holds very extensive archives of 20th century British art, little of which has been published. 

Catalogue of Dr John Percy
Dr John Percy is considered to be the first collector of early English watercolours, that is to say, those from the era before Turner. Percy's own catalogue of his collection contains many notes of late 19th century sales and collectors and is a great window on 19th century scholarship of drawings.

 

Catalogue of Leonard Duke (1890-1971)

Leonard Duke was one of the main 20th century collectors of English drawings, both historic and contemporary. His  volume catalogue survives in a unique photocopy in the British Museum department of prints and drawings, and describes 5-6,000 items.

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Catalogue of Paul Oppé
Aydua Scott-Elliot (1909-2003) produced a typescript catalogue of Paul Oppé's collection, copies of which are now at the Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre.  While the Tate acquired most of Oppé's collection in 1996, they have not yet published it in catalogue form.

Father John Thorpe letters
Thorpe was a Catholic priest who lived in Rome from the 1760s to his death in 1792. His correspondence with Lord Arundell (344 letters) represents a rich source of largely unpublished material on art and architecture in Italy and Britain in the later 18th century. 

Joseph Farington Correspondence (Royal Library, Windsor)
There are about 800 unpublished letters to and from Farington at Windsor, from the 1780s onwards. Many of them deal with family and other matters, or are not individually substantial; but collectively they will contain a huge amount of material that complements the diaries. 

British Institution archives (National Art Library)

Winifred Knights correspondence
In 2016, Sacha Llewellyn curated the show at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Winifred Knights (1899-1947), which brought the artist to public attention, and the catalogue of which was awarded the Berger Prize. Llewellyn has transcribed all known letters by the artist, which had been preserved by her family, and which could provide further avenues for research and publication. 

Banking records
These are a hugely underused resource in 18th and 19th century art history. Scholars could work with the Bank of England, Drummonds and/or Hoare's bank to publish lists of artists' accounts and selected transcripts of accounts to highlighting the material

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