| Admin/Biog History | Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (1918 -1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventually, curator and museum trustee.
It appears, from the journals in the Nicolson Archive, that Nicolson and Gowing first became acquainted in 1939. Nicolson was also acquainted with Julia Strachey, Gowing's long-term partner and later wife. The three became very close friends, regularly socialising together and staying at each other's houses. Journals in the Archive reveal that Nicolson gave emotional support to the couple through the various ups and downs of their relationship. He remained friends with them both following the final breakdown of their relationship in the late 1960s. The majoirty of the letters in the Nicolson Archive were written between 1948-1958 when Gowing was Professor of Fine Art at King's College, University of Durham (now the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) from 1948 to 1958. The letters are best read alongside the journals of the same period. |
| Description | Includes correspondence of a professional nature concerning, for example, Nicolson's role at the Burlington, requests for reviews, opinions on artists and books. Also includes correspondence of a personal nature including, for example, condolences on illness and bad news.
Of particular note:
-letter, dated 3 December 1939, concerning a portrait painted by Lawrence, given as a wedding present to Philip and Anne Toynbee
-letter, dated 2 January 1946, concerning his views on Victor [Passmore] and recent acquisitions at the National Gallery
-letter, dated 16 January 1946, concerning research in the National Gallery's photographic archive
-letter, dated 3 May 1947, concerning the Pannwitz collection; cleaning of 'the Night Watch' by Rembrandt; and visits to the museums in Brussells
-letter, dated 24 June 1949, concerning George de la Tour, the history and reputation of English art and the lack of British art critics and authors
.three letters, [1949], concerning Gowing's views of Adrian Stokes' book 'Art and Science' and the search for an appropriate individual to review it
-letter, [c1948-1958], concerning the tradition of reviewing publications by Kenneth Clark |