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Tuesday 4 October 2005
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
ACQUIRES
SYLVIA PLATH'S DRAWING OF TED HUGHES
Only surviving drawing of Ted Hughes by Sylvia Plath acquired
at auction
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired through auction what
is believed to be the only surviving drawing of Ted Hughes, one
of the late 20th Century's leading poets, made by his then wife,
the writer Sylvia Plath. The 1957 portrait, auctioned at Bonhams
was sold for _27,600. The National Art Collections Fund (Art
Fund) awarded a grant of £5,111 towards the purchase which
has also been supported by their donors. It is executed in pen
and ink on a numbered sheet, presumably a leaf from one of the
Challenger Triplicate books used by Plath for her journal. There
are no other works by Sylvia Plath in the collection.
The portrait was made at an important point in Hughes's career,
when he began to gain critical recognition for his first collection
of poems, Hawk in the Rain, and marks his emergence
as a leading poet. It was made within two years of his marriage
to Plath. Hughes preserved this drawing, having destroyed other
personal papers belonging to the marriage which ended in 1963
with Plath's death.
The drawing was given to Roy Davids, formerly head of books and
manuscripts at Sotheby's.
Roy was a good friend of Ted Hughes, and the sketch was a gift
from the poet to Roy, as documented by an inscription on the
verso. It was exhibited at the Cheltenham Literary Festival 1982;
and the British Library Millennium Exhibition: Chapter and
Verse: 1000 years of English Literature, 2000. It was reproduced
in The Epic Poise: A Celebration of Ted Hughes, ed Nick
Gammage, 1999.
The new portrait is a major addition to the National Portrait
Gallery's relatively limited representation of images of Hughes
which includes a bronze relief by Leonard Baskin dated 1978,
plus photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bill Brandt. Paul
Moorhouse, 20th Century Curator said: "The Gallery lacked,
and had been very keen to acquire a really compelling likeness
of Hughes made from life. This intimate portrait is a marvellous
evocation of a major poet and of a fascinating literary relationship."
The Gallery's wish to acquire this portrait falls within its
collection policy to promote 'the appreciation and understanding
of the men and women who have made and are making British history
and cultureand the appreciation of portraiture in all media.'
As such, the Gallery collects portraits by individuals who have
made a significant contribution to British culture, including
the arts, of which poetry is an important manifestation. It
therefore includes in its collection portraits of other leading
20th Century British poets, including: T S Eliot, Dylan Thomas,
W B Yeats, Stephen Spender, W H Auden and Philip Larkin.
The portrait was acquired at Creative Encounters: Portraits
of Writers, Artists and Musicians the Bonhams sale of the
Roy Davids Collection, the most extensive private collection
of portraits to come to auction in recent years.
For further press information please contact Neil Evans, Acting
Press Officer, National Portrait Gallery Tel 020 7312 2452 Mobile
07790 428638 Email nevans@npg.org.uk
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