3? October 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 01489)
Over
doré gallery, 35, new bond street, london, Sept. 21. 1877Agreeably to your instructions we duly forwarded the engraving “Xt. leaving the Prætorium” to the care of Messrs Routledge & Co; but they declined to honor the your draft on them for amt. of our a/c—
We have therefore sent the Proof out to you direct by Messrs Davies Turner & Co., whose local Agents will present the order for payment on delivery of the case—which we shall be obliged by your duly honoring.
We are, Sir
for Fairless & Beeforth
on the back:
The Routledges wrote me the other day that they had refused to pay this bill & I replied that they had done rightly.1explanatory note
These people said they would furnish the picture to me in 2½ years, or at the outside 3; & upon this understanding I gave them an order on Routledge for the money. I don’t know that there is any evidence but my mere memory & oathⒶemendation, as to that contract; but I will not pay any part of this bill or receive the picture unless you think their case is good in law. Shall I pay, or refuse?
doré gallery, 35, new bond street, O.P. 306
london, Sept. 20. 187 7
Samuel L. Clemens Esq.
Hartford
Connecticut, USA.
to fairless and beeforth, printsellers and publishers.
Artist’s Proof doré’s “christ leaving the prætorium” 1515″
frame and glass for ditto
box & fm 5″
net £ 16 ″″
mssrs. fairless and beeforth have the pleasure to announce the despatch of the engraving as above by and respectfully request the favour of a remittance for the amount.
The enclosed bill was for an engraving of Gustave Doré’s Christ Leaving the Praetorium, which Clemens had ordered from the Doré Gallery in London five years earlier, on 4 October 1872. An “Artist’s Proof” was an early print, made for the engraver to approve before the regular edition was printed, and often more valuable. At the time of his purchase, Clemens wrote a long notebook entry about the painting, on display in the gallery. It began:
I believe the Dorè gallery has fascinated me more than anything I have seen in London yet. I spent the day there. The main feature is the enormous oil painting 20 by 30 feet, “Christ Leaving the Praetorium” (after the judgment has been passed on him.) What a marvelous creation it is! And how insignificant, & lifeless & artificial the works of almost all other artists are compared to its greatness & its intense REALITY. They don’t seem to be mere representations of men & women, they seem alive. (CU-MARK; see Appendix C, “Mark Twain’s 1872 English Journalsclick to open link,” L5, 614–20, for the full passage)
MS, CtHMTH.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
See Perkins Collection in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.