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W. Graham Robertson Papers: Finding Aid
mssWR 1-707
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Title: W. Graham Robertson Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1875-1948
Collection Number: mssWR 1-707
Creator:
Robertson, W. Graham (Walford
Graham), 1866-1948.
Extent:
1,606 pieces in 17 boxes and 1 envelope.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection consists of correspondence both to and from English
painter and writer W. Graham Robertson (1866-1948), including letters from literary and
theatrical persons and fan mail regarding his published reminiscences, Time was (1931).
There are approximately 800 letters from Robertson to Kerrison Preston and also 15 notebooks
and sketchbooks of Robertson's.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. W. Graham Robertson Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Gift of Kerrison Preston, 1971 and Jean Preston, 1977.
Walford Graham Robertson (1866-1948) was a wealthy English painter, writer, and collector of William Blake watercolors.
Robertson was well known in art and
theatrical circles of the 1880s and 1890s as a rising artist. A bachelor, he lived with his
mother till her death in 1907, and thenceforth as a country gentleman. He developed
numerous friendships with actors, artists, and collectors. Among his correspondents were artists such as Burne-Jones and
Whistler, playwrights such as Pinero, James Barrie and Terence Rattigan, actors and
actresses such as Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt in the old days, the Lunts and Laurence
Oliviers later on, and collectors such as Mrs. (White) Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Although he painted and wrote little after 1914, he maintained extensive
correspondence with numerous literary or stage personalities during his long retirement, and
many of them made the journey to Sandhills, his Surrey home. As a collector he was best known for the number and
quality of his Blake watercolors, many of which he gave to the Tate Gallery on the outbreak
of World War II in 1939; the rest were widely dispersed to public and private
collections after his death in 1948. He had no relatives or heirs; to his long-time friend
and executor, Kerrison Preston, fell the task of distributing his books, pictures and estate
among various charitable causes. Among these was set up the William Blake Trust, founded
with Graham Robertson money, to publish the now well-known Trianon Press facsimiles of
Blake's illuminated books.
Bibliography
Graham Robertson's reminiscences,
Time Was 1931 (American title:
Life
was worth living)
describe his many friendships
Letters from Graham Robertson, edited by Kerrison Preston, 1953, with a
biographical introduction;
The Blake Collection of Graham Robertson, 1952,
edited by Kerrison Preston.
The collection consists of correspondence both to and from W. Graham Robertson, including
letters from literary and theatrical persons and fan mail regarding his published
reminiscences, Time was (1931). There are approximately 800 letters from Robertson to
Kerrison Preston and also 15 notebooks and sketchbooks of Robertson's.
Correspondents include: James Agate, Henry Ainley, William Allingham, Helen Paterson
Allingham, Helen Rossetti Angeli, Elizabeth Arnim, Marie Bancroft, Squire Bancroft, J.M.
Barrie, H.N. Bate, Julies Bastien-Lepage, Clifford Bax, Sir Max Beerbohm, Sarah Bernhardt,
R.D. Blackmore, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Bourchier, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen
(Baron Brabourne), James Bridie, Gordon Bottomley, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Mrs.
Patrick Campbell, William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), Noel Coward, Edith Craig, Edward
Gordon Craig, Walter Crane, E.M. Delafield, Alan Dent, Charles Dickens, Jr., Alix Egerton,
Nellie Farren, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Loie Fuller, Sir Edward German, Philip Gibbs,
Sir John Gielgud, W.S. Gilbert, Ronald Gorell Barnes (3rd Baron Gorell), Harley
Granville-Barker, Weedon Grossmith, Paul Hellew, Robert Smythe Hichens, Violet Hunt, Sir
Henry Irving, Rufus Daniel Isaacs (Marquess of Reading), Henry James, Geoffrey Keynes, W.M.
Letts, Georgette Leblanc, Vivien Leigh, Belloc Lowndes, Desmond MacCarthy, Denis George
Mackail, Norman McKinnel, Maurice Maeterlinck, Arthur Melville, Mortimer Menpes, Alice
Christina Thompson Meyell, Robert Montesquiou-Fézensac, Albert Joseph Moore, Jane Burden
Moore, May Morris, and Montrose Jonas Moses. Additional correspondents include: A. Edward
Newton, Julia Neilson, Frederic Norton, Laurence Olivier, Will Owen, Bernard Partridge,
Walter Pater, Hesketh Pearson, William Lyon Phelps, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, Sir Nigel
Playfair, Sir Edward John Poynter, Sir Hugh Edward Poynter, Terence Rattigan, Sir Michael
Redgrave, Ada Rehan, Athelstan Riley, Sir William Rothenstein, Sir John Rothenstein, Arthur
William Row, Archibald Geoge Blomefield Russell, Frederick Sandys, John Singer Sargent,
Emily Sargent, Athene Seyler, Robert Harborough Sherard, Robert E. Sherwood, Louis Shipman,
M.H. Spielmann, Alfred Sutro, Arthur Symons, Una Taylor, William Terriss, Dame Ellen Terry,
Fred Terry, Kate Terry, Ruthven Todd, Herbert Trench, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, H.M.
Walbrook, Theodore Watts-Dunton, James McNeill Whistler, Maude Valerie White, Oscar Wilde,
George Charles Williamson, Alexander Woolcott, and William Butler Yeats.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Robertson, W. Graham (Walford
Graham), 1866-1948.
Actors -- Great Britain -- Correspondence.
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Great
Britain -- Correspondence.
Artists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence.
Artists -- United States -- Correspondence.
Authors, English -- 19th century --
Correspondence.
Authors, English -- 20th century --
Correspondence.
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain --
19th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain --
20th century.
Preston, Kerrison, correspondent.
Agate, James, 1877-1947.
Ainley, Henry, 1879-1945.
Allingham, William, 1824-1889.
Allingham, Helen Paterson,
1848-1926.
Angeli, Helen Rossetti.
Bancroft, Marie, 1839-1921.
Bancroft, Squire, 1841-1926.
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew),
1860-1937.
Bate, H. N. (Herbert Newell),
1871-1941.
Bastien-Lepage, Jules,
1848-1884.
Bax, Clifford, 1886-1962.
Beerbohm, Max, Sir, 1872-1956.
Bernhardt, Sarah, 1844-1923.
Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge),
1825-1900.
Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951.
Bourchier, Arthur, 1863-1927.
Bottomley, Gordon, 1874-1948.
Brabourne, Edward Hugessen
Knatchbull-Hugessen, Baron, 1829-1893.
Bridie, James, 1888-1951.
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917.
Burne-Jones, Edward Coley,
1833-1898.
Campbell, Patrick, Mrs.,
1865-1940.
Coward, Noel, 1899-1973.
Craig, Edith, 1869-1947.
Craig, Edward Gordon, 1872-1966.
Crane, Walter, 1845-1915.
Delafield, E. M., 1890-1943.
Dent, Alan.
Dickens, Charles, 1837-1896.
Egerton, Alix, Lady.
Farren, Nellie, 1848-1904.
Forbes-Robertson, Johnston, Sir,
1853-1937.
Fuller, Loie, 1862-1928.
German, Edward, 1862-1936.
Gibbs, Philip, 1877-1962.
Gielgud, John, 1904-2000.
Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck),
1836-1911.
Gorell, Ronald Gorell Barnes, Baron,
1884-1963.
Granville-Barker, Harley,
1877-1946.
Grossmith, Weedon, 1852-1919.
Helleu, Paul, 1859-1927.
Hichens, Robert, 1864-1950.
Hunt, Violet, 1862-1942.
Irving, Henry, Sir, 1838-1905.
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Keynes, Geoffrey, 1887-1982.
Leblanc, Georgette, 1869-1941.
Leigh, Vivien, 1913-1967.
Letts, W. M. (Winifred M.),
1882-1972.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc,
1868-1947.
MacCarthy, Desmond, 1877-1952.
Mackail, Denis, 1892-1971.
McKinnel, Norman, 1870-1932.
Maeterlinck, Maurice, 1862-1949.
Melville, Arthur, 1855-1904.
Menpes, Mortimer, 1855-1938.
Meynell, Alice, 1847-1922.
Montesquiou-Fézensac, Robert, comte de,
1855-1921.
Moore, Albert Joseph, 1841-1893.
Moore, Jane Burden.
Morris, May, 1862-1938.
Moses, Montrose Jonas,
1878-1934.
Newton, A. Edward (Alfred Edward),
1864-1940.
Neilson, Julia, 1868-
Norton, Frederic, 1869-1946.
Olivier, Laurence, 1907-1989.
Owen, Will, 1869-1957.
Partridge, Bernard, 1861-1945.
Pater, Walter, 1839-1894.
Pearson, Hesketh, 1887-1964.
Phelps, William Lyon, 1865-1943.
Pinero, Arthur Wing, 1855-1934.
Playfair, Nigel, 1874-1934.
Poynter, Edward John, 1836-1919.
Poynter, Hugh E. (Hugh Edward), Sir,
1882-1968.
Rattigan, Terence.
Redgrave, Michael.
Rehan, Ada, 1857-1916.
Riley, Athelstan, 1858-1945.
Rothenstein, William, 1872-1945.
Rothenstein, John, 1901-1992.
Row, Arthur William, 1878-1961.
Russell, Archibald George Blomefield,
1879-1955.
Sandys, Frederick, 1829-1904.
Sargent, John Singer, 1856-1925.
Sargent, Emily, 1857-
Seyler, Athene.
Sherard, Robert Harborough,
1861-1943.
Sherwood, Robert E. (Robert Emmet),
1896-1955.
Shipman, Louis Evan, 1869-1933.
Spielmann, M. H. (Marion Harry),
1858-1948.
Sutro, Alfred, 1863-1933.
Symons, Arthur, 1865-1945.
Taylor, Una.
Terriss, William, -1897.
Terry, Ellen, Dame, 1847-1928.
Terry, Fred, 1863-1933.
Terry, Kate, 1844-1924.
Todd, Ruthven, 1914-1978.
Trench, Herbert, 1865-1923.
Tree, Herbert Beerbohm, Sir,
1852-1917.
Von Arnim, Elizabeth, 1866-1941.
Walbrook, H. M. (Henry Mackinnon),
1865-1941.
Watts-Dunton, Theodore,
1832-1914.
Whistler, James McNeill,
1834-1903.
White, Maude Valérie, 1855-1937.
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900.
Williamson, George Charles,
1858-1942.
Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943.
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler),
1865-1939.