CARROLL, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]. A Three Page Autograph Letter Signed from Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to Mrs. E.M. Ward 1892
Dodgson Seeks a Child-Model for Gertrude ThomsonCARROLL, Lewis [DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge]. A Three Page Autograph Letter Signed from C[harles]. L[utwidge]. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to Mrs. E.M. Ward. Christ Church, Oxford, 1892. 5 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. 2 1/2 pages. With original hand-addressed envelope. Fine."You kindly gave me, some while ago, for an artist friend, Miss E.G. Thomson, the address of a 'figure model,' Miss Ada Langley, who has, I believe, proved very useful to Miss Thomson. She now wants to find a younger one, a girl of about 7, to serve as figure-model. The face is of little importance: but she certainly ought to have a good figure: & I should think a good head of hair would be an advantage. Also, she should belong to respectable people. If you happen to know of such a model, & would send her address, either to me, or direct to Miss E.G. Thomson at I should be most grateful. with love to such of your daughters as are with you & will accept so trivial an offering, I am Sincerely yours. C.L. Dodgson."Henrietta Mary Ada Ward (1832-1924) was a painter of the royal family who fell in love with the artist Edward Matthew Ward when she was ten or eleven and married him at sixteen. Dodson admired Mrs. Ward's painting at the Royal Academy in the late 1850s, presented the Wards with his photographs of the Terry family, and photographed their children over the years. He contacted Mrs. Ward on several occasions with similar requests for assistance in obtaining child-models for himself and other artists (see Letters, p. 692). E. Gertrude Thomson was a close artist friend of Dodgson's who would later design the cover of Dodgson's Nursery "Alice" (1889) and his last book Three Sunsets (1898). The two often drew together from the same child-models, especially later when Charles had given up photography.
$US5000
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