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Lot 17

DODGSON (CHARLES LUTWIDGE)
Autograph letter signed ("C.L. Dodgson") to Arthur James Lewis ("My dear Lewis"), discussing the relative merits of painting and photography and enclosing a poem, Christ Church, Oxford, April 21 [18]80

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £4,375 inc. premium

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DODGSON (CHARLES LUTWIDGE)

Autograph letter signed ("C.L. Dodgson") to Arthur James Lewis ("My dear Lewis"), discussing the relative merits of painting and photography and enclosing a poem, ("...painting is a far higher line of Art than photography: but yet in the latter you can do so much in so short a time that I rather wonder all artists don't use it, if only to make memoranda of attitudes, lights, & shades..."), extolling the delights of Oxford in an attempt to persuade his friend to come to stay with him ("...Dinners at our High Table are not ill-cooked...Oxford will be looking its best for this next 6 weeks...") and ends "I forebear to draw any logical conclusion, which might be more dry & Scientific...", 3 pages, 8vo, Christ Church, Oxford, April 21 [18]80

Footnotes

'I'll BUILD A STUDIO!/AND EVERY DAY FOR EVERMORE/I'LL PHOTOGRAPH MY CHILDREN, FOUR/ALL SITTING IN A ROW'. The recipient of this letter and impromptu verse was Arthur James Lewis of Moray Lodge, Campden Hill, who held gatherings for the most distinguished painters and musicians of the day and was the brother-in-law of Ellen Terry. Dodgson was a a regular visitor to the Lewises. He wrote to Lewis in 1870 of his daughter Katie and his niece Alice Holdsworth: 'I think I fell in love, half with one and half with the other, when I met them at your house - an unfortunate occurrence in this country where bigamy is not regarded with favor.'.

Here Dodgson combines his wit as a letter writer, his skill as a poet and his hobby of photography, particularly of children. This letter is published in Edward Wakeling, Lewis Carroll's Diaries, 2003, vol.7, p.261.

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