Letter from Joseph Farington, place not identified, to Sir George Beaumont, 1819 December : autograph manuscript signed.

Commenting at length on the political situation, criticizing the actions of the opposition party and commending Lord Grenville; discussing the deterioration of moral and religious character in certain parts of the country; asking about Beaumont's trip to Switzerland; describing in detail Thomas Lawrence's and J. M. W. Turner's voyages to Italy and their activities there; saying that Turner's estimation of the work of the landscape painter Richard Wilson was raised by what he saw in Italy; reporting that other members of the Royal Academy, namely Francis Chantrey and John Jackson, had also made their way to "the Land of Painters" and would soon report to the Academy on their time spent there; sending news of other artists associated with the Academy, such as Henry Thomson; describing in great detail the ill health suffered by Benjamin West, Joseph Nollekens, and William Owen; discussing his memoir of Joshua Reynolds and the circumstances behind its creation and publication ("I wrote it at the particular desire of Messrs Cadell & Davies"); commenting on the idea of a biography of Wilson; apologizing for the delay in sending this letter and explaining "The fact is, that I prepare for painting every morning and throughout these short and dark days I avail myself of every hour of tolerable daylight. In consequence I use my pen only by candle light and to save my eyes write only by installments"; adding in a postscript news about and an address for George Woollett (possibly the son of the engraver William Woollett?).