Offers rejected: Filed by Spanish artists

The letters provide varying amounts of detail/description on the pictures being offered. Some provenance information and dimension of the paintings are sometimes included. The letters are often annotated with the reply to the offer and the date the response was sent. On occasion, when the offered picture has been matched to an entry in a published catalogue raisonne, the bibliographic reference has been recorded on the letter in the format [Author surname | Catalogue no.]. These references correspond to the following annotated catalogues in the National Gallery Library, and were presumably added post-1926:

Curtis: Velazquez and Murillo; a descriptive and historical catalogue of the works of Don Diego de Silva Velazquez and Bartolomé Estéban Murillo / By Charles B. Curtis (London, 1883)
Mayer: Francisco de Goya, by August L. Mayer; translated by Robert West (London, 1924)
Mayer: Dominico Theotocopuli El Greco : kritisches und illustriertes Verzeichnis des Gesamtwerkes / verfasst und eingeleitet von August L. Mayer (München, 1926)

The letters are generally from members for the public wishing to sell or gain valuation of their paintings. Some of the series also contains letters requesting information or providing the Gallery with certain information on paintings.

Since its foundation in 1824, the National Gallery has received from members of the public or art dealers offers of pictures of sale or donations. In some cases the offers are presented to the Board of Trustees for decision. However, in many cases the decision was make by the Keeper or Director, acting under his own authority.

Some pictures offered to and rejected by the National Gallery have subsequently become part of major public collections.

These letters were received by the Gallery 1837-1904. At some point they were separated from the rest of the Archive, and held within BOX DI 6 1.

Similar correspondence is filed in: NG5 Letters 1823-1877 NG7 Letters read at Board meetings 1877-1914 NG38 Offers rejected: British artists 1840-1904 NG39 Offers rejected: filed by owner 1836-1904 NG40 Offers rejected: collections 1845-1943 NG16 Registry series 1913-1987 [especially files: NG16/158.1-128: 1913-1987 and NG16/291: 1913-1921] NG1 minutes of the Board of Trustees, where some offers were discussed NG9 Register of Offers, 1878-1920