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Prince Albert's Personal Papers

Papers relating to Prince Albert’s personal life and enthusiasms

PASSAVANT, JOHANN DAVID, PROFESSOR; CURATOR OF THE STÄDEL'SCHES KUNSTITUT IN FRANKFURT, BIOGRAPHER OF RAPHAEL

Letter from J.D. Passavant to Dr. Ernst Becker specifying which photographs of details from the Raphael Cartoons which he wants.

19 Nov 1859

Loose manuscript paper; mounted | 1 document (4 pages) (whole object) | RA VIC/ADDA10/85/420

Passavant confirms that his previous letter (see VIC/ADDA10/85/418) crossed with Becker's letter (see VIC/ADDA10/85/417), which answered his questions. He thanks Becker for the prospectus of photographs of the Raphael Cartoons published by the Department of Practical Art, and for his offer to order what Passavant wants from it. He lists his requirements, but as the prospectus does not describe the photographs in sufficient detail, he cannot be sure whether the numbers he gives are the correct ones; he therefore encloses a list (see VIC/ADDA10/85/421) of the photographs he has already received, to enable Becker to work out which are the missing items that Passavant wants. He states that his Institute will see to the purchase of the other photographs [of Raphael drawings] published in England, without troubling Becker further.

Passavant goes on to comment on the photographs and prints which Becker has sent him. He is sure that the Assumption at Wilton House is the one mentioned by Goede; it seems to Passavant to belong to the Lombardic-Venetian school. The information given by Dr. Huybens is wrong, like so much he has told Passavant. The portrait of a young man belonging to Mr Baring (no. 287) does indeed show him holding a book or folder under his arm, as Passavant stated, but in the photograph it looks like a band around his garment. Passavant is sure he saw the picture of the Holy Family (no. 267) in the same collection, as clearly indicated in his notebook at the time, but he does not know what title the picture was given in the collection.

With regard to the St. Morys facsimiles [etchings], as Becker will have seen from his previous letter Passavant immediately recognised them as from the London edition of St Morys's work, but he was glad to hear that these are the only ones in it attributed to Raphael. He thanks Becker for the information from M. Reiset's letter, which he returns. Becker will have found that the original drawing for no. 110, the pedestal in the Stanza di Eliodoro, is in the Stockholm collection.

Passavant reports that a gentleman from Coburg recently showed him two sepia watercolour drawings glued onto wood, showing the figures of John the Baptist and St Catherine from Raphael's picture of the 5 saints. They are copies, apparently from the drawing in the Louvre.

Finally he reports that the photographer, Schäfer, has not taken any more photographs of drawings or paintings by Raphael. He is much too busy with the lucrative business of portrait photographs.
On the back of 420 is a rough sketch in red ?chalk, probably of the picture of the young man with a book or folder under his arm.

Related Material: For related correspondence, see VIC/ADDA10/85/417, VIC/ADDA10/85/418 and VIC/ADDA10/85/421.
  • Creator(s)

    Passavant, Johann David, Professor; Curator of the Städel'sches Kunstitut in Frankfurt, biographer of Raphael (writer) [19 November 1859]

    Dr Ernst Becker (1826-88)

    (addressee)

  • 1 document (4 pages) (whole object)