Hendaye. - Was so busy after his visit to the Netherlands that he did not write and thank Bob for his letter to [Abraham?] Bredius; missed Bredius twice at the Museum and at Scheveningen, but managed to see most of the pictures at the Hague and Leiden. Praises the Hague gallery and the Mauritzhuis; the picture he went to see at Leiden ["Quintus Fabius Maximus", attributed to Rembrandt, now lost] was interesting, 'very late very ugly but imposing'. Covets some 'wonderful pictures' he found at a dealers, but got some good drawings there, including a 'superb Rembrandt'. The 'Rijksmuseum is too much of a good thing'; discusses the Dutch School, Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" and his "Anatomy Lesson" paintings at the Hague and Amsterdam. Criticises de Hoogh [Pieter de Hooch] for 'having painted so many second rate things', but Brouwer and Jan Steen have gone up in his estimation. Started this letter at Paris but was forced to stop due to the jolting of the train so is finishing it at Hendaye; hopes their journey to Spain will not be 'held up by a general strike'. Love to Bessie from him and Helen.
Norwich.—Among the pictures he is proposing to give to a London dealer in part-exchange for others is one by by Teniers which he had previously offered to Turner. Asks if he still wants it, and if he will help him obtain a copy of one of Christie’s sale catalogues.
(Signed 'Geo. Stacy Jr'.)
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Transcript
Sir
By last Nights Coach I returned from London, and have discovered there a sort of “Rara avis in terris” a perfect prodigy, I assure you, an honest dealer in pictures!! I am so told however, and have no reason to think otherwise at present, our acquaintance however has been Cut short, and as I know well that opinions hastily formed are frequently obliged to be retracted, I will venture no further on this point just yet.
The liberty I am taking in addressing this epistle to you Sir, is shortly this, I am very desirous to take from the number of pictures I possess, and to add to them quality, five and twenty for me, rather than fifty, but these shall be of the first class!!!—the worthy Gentleman above alluded to, has three pictures that will be to me a great acquisition, and we have so far got through, that it is agreed he is to take the stipulated sum in two thirds cash, one third Pictures—amongst five small ones I intend sending, is the little breakfast picture of “Taste” by Teniers, bought at the late Mr Harveys sale, but when removing them from the wall this morning for the purpose of packing, I remembered your request when at my house with Mrs Turner, to have this picture offered you in case I should ever be induced to part with it, I have now nothing as a companion and do not care for keeping it, should you therefore still feel desirous to possess it, it is at your service upon the same terms I had it at the sale, (23 Guineas) I will delay my package untill I receive your reply, and should you decide upon taking it, it shall be directly dispatched for Yarmouth, you will probably be in Norwich in the Spring of the year, ’till which time delay the payment, then on your calling I shall have the pleasure to show you a Picture, which I believe to be the very finest of Ruisdaels productions.
I have now Sir a favour to ask of you, and I am sure if it lays in your means you will oblige me,—I am endeavouring to collect catalogues of the most eminent sales of pictures that have taken place within the last fourteen years, amongst those I have, is one, of the sale at Mr Christie’s room on Monday July 12th 1811, {1} the Pictures were all fine, but amongst them in particular one Rembrandt Ship Builder &c the Hayfield Wouwerman, Philip, Bathing the Eunuch, by Both &c &c these with many others of them were from the Cabinet of Mr Schmi[dt] {2} of Amsterdam, this catalogue is but in eight or ten instances marked, and should you possess one, and for a day or two would grant me the loan of it to complete mine by, I shall esteem it an obligation.
Am Sir
most respectfully
Your Obliged Hble Serv[an]t
Geo: Stacy Jr
Norwich
Decr 14th 1821
To
Dawson Turner Esqr
[Superscription:] Dawson Turner Esqr | Yarmouth
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No marks of posting.
{1} The date is apparently wrong. See A Catalogue of … Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch Pictures … comprising the flower of the very precious cabinet of Mr Schmidt of Amsterdam … which will be sold by auction by Mr Christie at his Great Room, Pall Mall, on Wednesday, June 12th, 1811, and The Times, 12 June 1811, p. 4. The collector referred to as ‘Mr Schmidt’ was Pieter de Smeth van Alphen, a Dutch merchant and banker. See ‘An unwritten chapter of Dutch collecting history: the painting collection of Pieter de Smeth van Alphen (1753-1809)’, Simiolus, vol. 40, no. 1 (2018), pp. 18-98.
{2} A small piece of the paper has been cut away where the seal was attached.
c/o Mrs Röntgen, 77 van Eeghenstraat, Amsterdam. - He and Bessie are having a 'very pleasant time in Holland', mainly staying in Amsterdam so far, but next Thursday going to the family country house at Doorn. Bessie is 'very well', and enjoying her return to Holland after three years. Last Thursday they visited Bessie's half-sister Mrs Versteg in the country at Heerde; this is near the Yssel, the river which, according to Ferrero, the fleet of [Nero Claudius] Drusus must have sailed along to reach the Zuider Zee. Bessie went this morning to visit her cousin Louisa Hubrecht at Leiden, but will return this afternoon.
Has just returned from a visit to the Rijksmuseum with Mrs Röntgen's eldest son Johannes; the arrangement of the pictures there has much changed. The Museum has also bought and now displays several paintings from the Six collection, such as Vermeer's 'Cook'; the Rembrandts remain in the house of the Six family, but cannot now be seen without 'an order from the consul or a friend of the family'. It is a shame for the collection to be broken up, but 'it seems that the tourists sometimes were offensive, and the Sixes, who are really quite nice people, hardly felt as if the house belonged to themselves.
Their friend [Donald] Tovey comes here on Monday night, and will go with them to Doorn on Thursday. Hopes his parents have had as good weather at Welcombe as they have had here, and that his father is 'quite well again'. Hears they are going to have an election at Stratford; fears there will be little chance of 'getting a Liberal in at present'. Here they are awaiting 'the birth of an heir to the house of Orange'; if this happens while Robert and Elizabeth are in Amsterdam, they will 'the cannons announce it in the Vondel Park opposite'. His mother's letter to Bessie arrived today; sure she will reply soon. Is finishing the fifth volume of Fererro's history of Rome: thinks he is 'very good about the most important things, such as the relations of Augustus and Tiberius, and the decadence of the aristocracy, but that in details Ferrero 'often seems to form theories with too much assurance upon insufficient evidence'. Perhaps, however, classical historians are 'almost bound to do that, where the evidence is so scanty'.