Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity

ISBN 978-1-84976-391-2

Bryan Robertson Letter to Martin Butlin, Tate Gallery 22 July 1957

Bryan Robertson 'Letter to Martin Butlin, Tate Gallery' 22 July 1957
Bryan Robertson
Letter to Martin Butlin, Tate Gallery 22 July 1957
Tate Public Records PC4.2.2
In July 1952 the Tate Gallery bought Moore’s sculpture Girl 1931 (Tate N06078) from the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In this letter Bryan Robertson, Director of the Whitechapel, responds to a request for information about the work made by the curator Martin Butlin at Tate.

Transcript

[Letterhead:]
                              WHITECHAPEL ART GALLERY
                              HIGH STREET, LONDON E.1
                              Telephone: BIShopsgate 1492
                              Station: Aldgate East
Chairman of Trustees:
The Viscount Bearsted, D.L., T.D.
Director:
Bryan Roberston
Assistant
Ann Forsdyke
[Typescript with some handwritten corrections and signature]
                                   22nd July, 1957
Dear Mr. Butlin,
 Thank you so much for your letter of July 15th, and please forgive me for the delay in writing to you. I must confess that your first letter did not go astray – I put it on one side, temporarily, because we were exceptionally busy when it arrived, and then I am afraid that I mislaid it.
 The Henry Moore carving was not acquired by us from the artist, but was presented to the Gallery in the 1930’s from a private collection. I thought that I had sent all the information we had on the subject to Sir John or Norman Reid when the Tate Gallery purchased this carving from us, but I must have been mistaken. At any rate, I will send you such information that we have within the next day or two. I shall have to look into some files that have been parcelled away for some time.*
Yours sincerely,
Bryan Robertson
Director.
Martin Bultin, Esq.,
Assistant Keeper,
The Tate Gallery,
S.W.1.

How to cite

Bryan Robertson, Letter to Martin Butlin, Tate Gallery, 22 July 1957, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, Tate Research Publication, 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/henry-moore/bryan-robertson-letter-to-martin-butlin-tate-gallery-r1145471, accessed 22 July 2024.