DLA017-0122  Transcription

80, WARWICK GARDENS,

KENSINGTON, W.14.

6. 3. [19]30

Dear Mr de Laszlo.

I feel I must thank your for your sympathetic enquiries as to how things were with me. I must confess that for one who relies entirely on his brush for a living, the times are serious enough! Last year was a pretty good one for me, but this year, there seems to be nothing happening at all! Picture sales have slumped & at best portrait commissions rarely come my way. I attribute this state of affairs to a marked hostility in the London Press & a lack of recognition by the Art Authorities; for instance, the R.A. for some years now regularly accepts my work, but never places it! Perhaps this may be due to the fact that I was away from England for some years, because prior to my departure I was very well hung there. The newer generation do not know me & to

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them I have the added disadvantage of a foreign name! Three years ago I had a one man show in the Fine Art Soc. Galleries in Bond St.^[1] It was entirely frozen out by the Press & I barely got a notice, the critics billed it stone dead! Messrs Konody & Wilenski have got a personal grudge against me, for reasons I know of & when they have referred to my work, it is in the most insulting terms possible. I am not very depressed at these gentlemen’s attitude to me as I know enough of their character & mentality to appraise them at their true value! — Capt Bruce Ingram^[2] purchased a picture from the exhibition but even that had an unfortunate sequel as the management refused to allow him to reproduce a no. of my pictures in colour, in his journals, for the terms he offered & I think that annoyed him. – I send you a catalogue of the show, the foreword may

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interest you.^[3] It is by my old friend M.H. Spielmann^[4] He has been a wonderful friend to me having noticed my work when I was a student & he was then Editor of the now defunct Magazine of Art & he was instrumental in getting me many fine commissions but he is now aged & has retired to the country away from public life. The present state of the art world & my responsibilities & a very uncertain income to meet them with does not give me much peace of mind but I am very keen & I feel I shall pull through! – You must pardon me writing at such

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length but if you could put anything my way I should appreciate it very much indeed.^[5]

With kindest regards | believe me | Yours very sincerely

JH Amshewitz.

Editorial Note:

John Henry Amshewitz (1882-1942), British artist; fellow member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA)

SMDL

03/09/2021