Books and Manuscripts

Pope, Alexander
Autograph Letter, signed
No place, no date (presumably Twickenham, ca. 1721). One sheet folded to make four pages, 6 1/8 x 4 in. (155 x 102 mm). One-page autograph letter signed by Alexander Pope to Jonathan Richardson: “I desire particularly to see you on Munday (sic), for on Tuesday &c, I must be absent from home. I will set apart ye whole day, & therefore pray dine with me. I am sorry yr. Son is still detained, I hope not by Indisposition. There are some strokes in yr. Letter that give me uneasiness, I hope not with too much cause, for little Evils we all must expect in the Course of this World, as it is constituted. I am with truth yrs. A. Pope.” Addressed by the Pope on verso, “To Mr. Richardson at his house in Queens Square Bloomsbury”; postmarked, wax seal intact. Creasing from old folds; very lightly affected by damp at center of letter, same lightly toned; old stub adhered to left side. In mat and in frame with an engraved portrait of Pope, 13 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. (343 x 375 mm). Printed in The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, Volume II 1719-1728, p. 61.

A warm and early letter between Alexander Pope and portraitist and writer Jonathan Richardson. Although undated, it is presumed that this letter dates to the early years of Pope and Richardson's friendship, them having first met in 1716 and remained close friends until Pope's death in 1744. Richardson, a pupil of John Riley, was one of the most preeminent English painters of his day, and over the course of their friendship, completed numerous portraits of Pope. As a writer and critic, Richardson was incredibly influential, with his An Essay on the Theory of Painting (1715) and An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-Reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures in Italy (1722)--completed with the help of his son, mentioned above--inspiring the likes of Joshua Reynolds to Johann Joachim Winckelmann.