
Luke Batterham
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Senior Valuer
THE PAINTER SIR MATTHEW SMITH TO THE COMPOSER BERNARD VAN DIEREN; largely about the sale of a Matthew Smith painting from Van Dieren to his fellow composer Sir Arthur Bliss (negotiated by Smith as a tactful means of helping Van Dieren): "Do you think by setting in motion delicate machinery it would be possible to prevail on Bliss to buy the canvas you now hold of mine as a sort of hostage, putting the very lowest price 50 or 60 half going to you for Roche [van Dieren's doctor] and half I should send to my wife/... I feel that you feel a little injured that I should seem to wish to transfer the canvas from you to Bliss. I should of course never have suggested what I did suggest, had it not been understood that you were probably changing the canvas in question for another one later on".