Letters and papers by or relating to the painter and illustrator Arthur Hughes (1832-1915).

This collection includes letters from Arthur Hughes to Agnes Hale-White, Jack Hale-White and Cecily Hale-White, letters to Arthur Hughes from Vernon Lushington and poems and papers by and relating to Arthur Hughes.

Arthur Hughes studied with Alfred Stevens at the School of Design, Somerset House, London (in 1846), then won an art studentship to the Royal Academy Schools. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849. He encountered the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in their journal, the `Germ' (1950). Although never an official member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hughes knew the Pre-Raphaelites and was influenced by their subject matter and technique. His paintings show a strong interest in medieval subjects and those of modern dress subjects explore emotional subjects such as unhappy courtship. Cecily Hale-White was the daughter of Arthur Hughes's daughter Agnes, and John (`Jack') Hale-White. Her paternal grandfather, William Hale-White, wrote under the pseudonym `Mark Rutherford'. Further biographical information can be found in the exhibition catalogue `Arthur Hughes, 1832-1915: Pre-Raphaelite Painter' (Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, 1971), by Leslie Cowan, and in Leonard Roberts's `Arthur Hughes: His Life and Works: A Catalogue Raisonnâe' (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997).

OPEN

Presented by Arthur Hughes's granddaughter Cecily Hale-White in 1971.

Cecily Hale-White also presented a copy of her memoir of Jack and Agnes Hale-White (TGA 7017) and a letter from Arthur Hughes to William Hale-White (TGA 7036).