Charles Lock Eastlake letter to Richard Redgrave

Marked "Private." "My Dear Sir, A short conversation with you recently will have prepared you for the accompanying official letter. It should be further explained that the pictures are to be painted in oil and on a moveable material (not on the wall) - but whether on cloth or wood has not been determined but if the artist had no objection I think that wood would be fittest for the purpose. It is not absolutely necessary that one artist should execute the whole - the advantage of one might be that taking one portrait with another, the cost of the whole might be less. A Scotch artist received £50 for one portrait - not ultimately approved. Had he been employed to execute many his price would have been about £30 or £40 each. I remain, my Dear Sir Yours Faithfully, C.L. Eastlake." [A note on the back of the letter in Redgrave's hand mentions that this letter concerns the "Tudor portraits," presumably those by Richard Burchett and his students in the Prince's Chamber at the Palace of Westminster.]