Lot 136
ART IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITAIN Archive of the Pallas Gallery, fine art publishers, including letters from the leading names in twentieth century British art
Ending from 19 November 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge£7,000 - £10,000
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ART IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITAIN
Archive of the Pallas Gallery, fine art publishers, comprising autograph and typed letters, with some signed contracts, by some of the leading names in twentieth century British art, and papers relating to the business itself, including:
Stanley Spencer (autograph letter of 6 pages, December 1942, written in pencil, discussing scenes from the Burghclere Chapel, including Convoy Arriving at a Hospital, and recommending his earlier work: "There is a great liking for my early paintings done before the last war & I share it"; with a retained copy of the Gallery's reply, informing him that "We like the idea of figure subjects, but we are not quite sure whether they are 'saleable'. It is wretched that in selecting our pictures we cannot choose them for their purely academic value and must also bear in mind the fact that they must be purchased by an extremely ignorant public"); Oskar Kokoschka (eleven autograph letters, one in German, plus a card, writing of his major retrospective in Munich and Vienna: "I wonder who among the best-known painters of today could compete with it or show the same personal independent integrity throughout the time? ... that really unique and splendid exhibition... No painter today has achieved such brilliance", 1956-1962); Graham Sutherland (series of two autograph and sixteen typed letters, discussing the Gallery's approaching publication with Zwemmer of Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph: The Genius of the Great Tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, especially in light of being told that the architect Basil Spence is "a trifle pained": "I would not overplay the good which he did &..I would not mention the harm which he did nothing to prevent... there was a clouded period... this disastrous episode"; with his extensive autograph contributions to a manuscript of the book, of which he remarks: "What you have sent me is the worst bit of typographical layout I have ever seen... Something distinguished must be done or we shall be a laughing stock"; accompanied by two typed letters by Kenneth Clark, declining to contribute a preface or to be quoted as a third party: "I am afraid you will think me very churlish, but I would not like the remarks I made about Graham Sutherland's tapestry for my Coventry broadcast to be printed... I always attach great importance to the difference between the spoken word and the written word... Any success my television talks may have is largely due to the fact that I deliberately put them into less formal language, which in print looks merely illiterate"; Sutherland's later letters about possible commissions from the Gallery: "your idea of developing original graphics is an excellent one . . . without any question, if you were to ask me to do a lithograph, in spite of some of the difficulties, but because of our long friendship and association, I would say 'yes'"); Ben Nicholson (fifteen autograph letters and two postcards, concerned with precise technicalities: "the whole reproduction needs moving up to the top – I know this seems a detail but the life of the reproduction depends I think on this... convinced that the first proofs are much better – in every detail – hardness of line, colour, edge, shadow cast by paper etc... what both publisher & artist require is a reality... My work is always, I suppose, a-symmetrical and the centralised printing runs counter to the work!"); Marc Chagall (typed card, with letters by his wife and daughter); William Russell Flint (three autograph letters, about unauthorised reproductions); Hugh Gaitskell (a director of the gallery); Egon Hanfstaengl; Ivon Hitchens (three autograph letters, discussing reproductions, with a small sketch); Anthony Blunt (autograph letter and three typed letters, about varying qualities of colour reproduction, the National Gallery's Leonardo Cartoon appeal, with an inscribed off-print of The Précieux and French Art, 1955-62); Henry Moore (autograph and three typed letters); Roland Penrose (autograph and two typed letters regarding reproductions of Woman with Mandolin and Woman in Tears: "I'm sure Picasso would appreciate it very much if you could send him some copies direct. He always likes attention of this kind..."); John Piper (seven autograph letters and four cards, discussing "longish-shaped" paintings as possible candidates for reproduction and proposing a generous solution to discarded prints, admitting: "I have hardly touched an etching needle or aquatint box since about 1940") etc.
Contracts signed by Winston Churchill (two, agreeing to the reproduction of his paintings as Christmas cards, subject to his exclusive first use, 1950 and 1956); Augustus John (for reproduction of painting, 1942); and Matthew Smith (for reproduction of Still life, Jug and Apples, 1938 from the Queen's collection, 1948)
Group of business papers chronicling the beginning and the end of the company including three minute books (for Foreign Prints Company Limited, 1931-1982, with Hugh Gaitskell Chairman until 1944; for the Soho Publishing Company Ltd, 1938-1951 and 1960-61; and for the Pallas Gallery Limited, 1935-1988); plus earlier papers relating to the founder, Andrew Revai's earlier career, accounts and financial statements and papers relating to the last days of the business (collection)
Stanley Spencer (autograph letter of 6 pages, December 1942, written in pencil, discussing scenes from the Burghclere Chapel, including Convoy Arriving at a Hospital, and recommending his earlier work: "There is a great liking for my early paintings done before the last war & I share it"; with a retained copy of the Gallery's reply, informing him that "We like the idea of figure subjects, but we are not quite sure whether they are 'saleable'. It is wretched that in selecting our pictures we cannot choose them for their purely academic value and must also bear in mind the fact that they must be purchased by an extremely ignorant public"); Oskar Kokoschka (eleven autograph letters, one in German, plus a card, writing of his major retrospective in Munich and Vienna: "I wonder who among the best-known painters of today could compete with it or show the same personal independent integrity throughout the time? ... that really unique and splendid exhibition... No painter today has achieved such brilliance", 1956-1962); Graham Sutherland (series of two autograph and sixteen typed letters, discussing the Gallery's approaching publication with Zwemmer of Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph: The Genius of the Great Tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, especially in light of being told that the architect Basil Spence is "a trifle pained": "I would not overplay the good which he did &..I would not mention the harm which he did nothing to prevent... there was a clouded period... this disastrous episode"; with his extensive autograph contributions to a manuscript of the book, of which he remarks: "What you have sent me is the worst bit of typographical layout I have ever seen... Something distinguished must be done or we shall be a laughing stock"; accompanied by two typed letters by Kenneth Clark, declining to contribute a preface or to be quoted as a third party: "I am afraid you will think me very churlish, but I would not like the remarks I made about Graham Sutherland's tapestry for my Coventry broadcast to be printed... I always attach great importance to the difference between the spoken word and the written word... Any success my television talks may have is largely due to the fact that I deliberately put them into less formal language, which in print looks merely illiterate"; Sutherland's later letters about possible commissions from the Gallery: "your idea of developing original graphics is an excellent one . . . without any question, if you were to ask me to do a lithograph, in spite of some of the difficulties, but because of our long friendship and association, I would say 'yes'"); Ben Nicholson (fifteen autograph letters and two postcards, concerned with precise technicalities: "the whole reproduction needs moving up to the top – I know this seems a detail but the life of the reproduction depends I think on this... convinced that the first proofs are much better – in every detail – hardness of line, colour, edge, shadow cast by paper etc... what both publisher & artist require is a reality... My work is always, I suppose, a-symmetrical and the centralised printing runs counter to the work!"); Marc Chagall (typed card, with letters by his wife and daughter); William Russell Flint (three autograph letters, about unauthorised reproductions); Hugh Gaitskell (a director of the gallery); Egon Hanfstaengl; Ivon Hitchens (three autograph letters, discussing reproductions, with a small sketch); Anthony Blunt (autograph letter and three typed letters, about varying qualities of colour reproduction, the National Gallery's Leonardo Cartoon appeal, with an inscribed off-print of The Précieux and French Art, 1955-62); Henry Moore (autograph and three typed letters); Roland Penrose (autograph and two typed letters regarding reproductions of Woman with Mandolin and Woman in Tears: "I'm sure Picasso would appreciate it very much if you could send him some copies direct. He always likes attention of this kind..."); John Piper (seven autograph letters and four cards, discussing "longish-shaped" paintings as possible candidates for reproduction and proposing a generous solution to discarded prints, admitting: "I have hardly touched an etching needle or aquatint box since about 1940") etc.
Contracts signed by Winston Churchill (two, agreeing to the reproduction of his paintings as Christmas cards, subject to his exclusive first use, 1950 and 1956); Augustus John (for reproduction of painting, 1942); and Matthew Smith (for reproduction of Still life, Jug and Apples, 1938 from the Queen's collection, 1948)
Group of business papers chronicling the beginning and the end of the company including three minute books (for Foreign Prints Company Limited, 1931-1982, with Hugh Gaitskell Chairman until 1944; for the Soho Publishing Company Ltd, 1938-1951 and 1960-61; and for the Pallas Gallery Limited, 1935-1988); plus earlier papers relating to the founder, Andrew Revai's earlier career, accounts and financial statements and papers relating to the last days of the business (collection)
Footnotes
'PICASSO WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH IF YOU COULD SEND HIM SOME COPIES DIRECT. HE ALWAYS LIKES ATTENTION OF THIS KIND': PAPERS OF THE PALLAS GALLERY, FINE ART PUBLISHERS.
This group of correspondence and other papers succinctly documents the history of what was in fact a publishing business rather than an exhibitor, notably the scholarly and socially astute influence of Hungarian-born Dr Andrew Revai. Properly enough the collection is concentrated on the period when Revai had shifted the business from the large-scale reproduction of works of art – as posters, Christmas cards, etc – to commissioning original graphics from some of the leading practitioners of the age.
Provenance: Dr Andrew Revai, founder of the gallery; Frank Gadsby, managing director after Revai's death until it ceased trading in the late 1980s; thence by descent.