C.L. Eastlake letter regarding the acquisition of Gainsborough 'Dr Ralph Schomberg' ...

Album page containing a letter from C.L. Eastlake to George Barker regarding the acquisition of Gainsborough 'Dr Ralph Schomberg' (NG684); fragment of personal letter from Lady Elizabeth Eastlake; photograph of Lady Elizabeth Eastlake taken by Mrs V. Bartholomew.

Gainsborough's 'Dr Ralph Schomberg' was presented to the National Gallery in August 1835 by one of the sitter's grandsons, Henry Charles Schomberg, in the name of the Schomberg family, but after his elder brothers Alexander William Schomberg and Rev. John Bathurst Schomberg protested that they had not consented to the gift, it was withdrawn and returned to the Schomberg family in May 1836. By 1856 it was owned by Joseph Trigge Schomberg from whom it was purchased by the National Gallery in 1862.

Sir Charles Eastlake's letter is attached to a page from an album which also contains part of a letter from Lady Elizabeth Eastlake and a photograph of Lady Eastlake. It possibly once formed part of an autograph album. The page was purchased from an American dealer in autographs, Paper Trails, of Charlton, Massachusetts by the British manuscripts' dealer, Personalia, of Newport, Isle of Wight, from whom it was purchased by the National Gallery Archive in August 2007. The purchase price of the letter was £90.