Robert Thompson Crawshay - Letter to Ralph Curtis from Cadenabbia, Italy, 4 May 1897

Fullscreen
Back
5 more
3 more

Robert Thompson Crawshay (1853 - 1944)

Letter to Ralph Curtis from Hotel Bellevue, Cadenabbia, Italy, 4 May 1897

Ink on paper

Archives

Off View
Explore Archives

Commentary

In 1892, Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased seven gilded, carved, and painted wood chairs that once belonged to one of Renaissance Italy’s most powerful families—the Borgheses. In this letter, Robert Thompson Crawshay—who owned six chairs from the same set—asks Isabella’s advisor Ralph Curtis if he may purchase Isabella’s chairs in order to reunite the lot. Isabella denied Crawshay’s request and displayed the chairs in the Museum’s Titian Room.