| Description | Letter to Alexander Macdonald of Kepplestone from John Pettie, 21 St. John's Wood Road, N.W. London, regarding arrangements for Orchardson sending his picture to Macdonald after it comes back from the Royal Academy exhibition, Pettie and his wife have very much enjoyed their trip to Holland, 'professionally it has been of advantage to me', meeting with Jozef Israels and outing with him to an island on the Zuiderzee, sight of Dutch troops being moved to the frontier because of 'this unhappy war', Cottier, ill with a rheumatic fever, has been sent to Aix-la-Chapelle, very near the war zone, working but not yet on a picture, Orchardson's picture his best this year, weather heavy, Orchardson should leave Venice soon though he may be too ill to do so, 'Excuse this not very intelligible scrawl', 21 July 1870 |