No.
635 Mayfair
Telephone No.
3570 Central
Telegraphic Address,
"Zoological, London"
Zoological Society of London
3, Hanover Square, London, W
40 St. Lukes Road W
Dec[ember]. 21
Dear Dr Wallace
Some days ago I promised a friend — Mr. W. Rothenstein3 to write to you & ask if you would be willing for him to take your portrait, in black & white, to be lithographed.
Mr Rothenstein is undoubtedly very successful in portraiture. Some years ago he featured "Oxford Portraits", [2] & a couple of years ago "English Portraits" — a series of lithographs of well known persons. He is now working on another series on the same lines, to include about twenty or twenty-five men of the time whose names in Science, Literature & other deportments stand highest in the world’s testimonies[?]. He is very anxious to be allowed to include your portrait; & of course he knows that unless he succeeds in getting the face he covets his work will not be what he intends to make it. He [3] has just made an excellent portrait of Sir Joseph Hooker4, who is close at hand, & is now doing, or going to do shortly, Lord Kelvin5. The other two in the world of Science he desires are yourself & Sir Oliver Lodge6.
Mr. Rothenstein would of course go down to you, any-time during the winter or spring months when it would be convenient for you to give him a sitting.
I so most sincerely hope that you will make a favourable reply — one I shall should be delighted to convey to the artist; &, further, I so think it most important that there should be good portraits — not only photographs — of those who have been and are the leaders of thought of this time.
Believe me, dear Dr. Wallace | with the Season’s good wishes | Yours very truly | W. H. Hudson7 [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1517.1296)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP1517,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1517