Archive of manuscript letters and diaries

Item author: George Richmond
Item date: 1840s - 1896
Grant Value: £10,000
Item cost: £29,500
Item date acquired: 2002
Item institution: Royal Academy of Arts
Town/City: London

A series of 42 diaries together with nearly one thousand letters. Correspondents include the Coleridge family, William Gladstone, John Ruskin, Elizabeth Fry, Joseph Severn, JE Millais and Frederic, Lord Leighton. Many letters relate to portrait commissions with ecclesiastical grandees and the aristocracy, who are shown bargaining, criticising or complimenting the artist. 

This archive is by far the largest surviving body of manuscripts resulting from the life of George Richmond, RA. His professional career spans the Victorian era, beginning before the coming of the railways and ending at the dawn of the automobile.  

The George Richmond archive has been catalogued and on-line since 2004, contributing hugely to multifarious strands of Victorian cultural and social historical research. 

Online catalogue entry