Mendelssohn

Sir Henry Mendelssohn Hake Director of the National Portrait Gallery London. Typed Letter Signed ‘H M. Hake’ to S. Hodgson recording portraits of George Cruikshank and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.

25176 — 11 June 1937; on letterhead of the National Portrait Gallery London. 1p 4to. On discoloured and somewhat grubby paper folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘S. Hodgson Esq.’ and signed ‘H M. Hake’. Hodgson has sent Hake ‘a manuscript fragment’ which does not seem to indicate either of ‘the portraits in the Gallery’. He has ‘looked up the record of portraits offered in the past but there is no mention of Mrs. Cruikshank or her executors.’ He asks a related question before turning to the subject of the physician Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson 1828-1896 who was in Hake’s opinion ‘more of a professional worthy than a national one’. Despite his opinion Hake ‘would not discourage his portrait being offered if it were not too large a portrait’. He is retaining the slip ‘manuscript fragment’ in case anything further occurs to him. ‘S. Hodgson’ donated a carte-de-visite and a cabinet card to the NPG in 1961. 11 June 1937; on letterhead of the National Portrait Gallery, London. unknown