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^[[F]]

COPY OF LETTER FROM BENEDICT NICOLSON, ESQ.

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, LTD.
12 Bedford Square - LONDON W.C.I.

July 7, 1961

Dear Mr. Seligman,

I am glad to hear that you have purchased the picture by the Candlelight Master, and rather surprised that you had to pay so much for it. I expect you had Weitzner against you. He has a beautiful work by this artist. Another belongs to P. de Boer, Amsterdam, of the [[underlined]] Magdalen [[/underlined]], which is almost the most beautiful of all. I would be very pleased to have a photograph of your picture when it is cleaned. I have the poor A.C. Cooper print of it in its present state.

My article on the Candlelight Master appeared in the [[underlined]] Nederlands Kunsthis[[strikethrough]]torisch[[/strikethrough]]torisch Jaarboek [[/underlined]], December 1960 and you are sure to find a copy at the Frick or elsewhere. Unfortunately, I have been out of ^[[off]]prints - otherwise I would have sent you one. But they only gave me a limited number and I had to send them out to various people who had helped me in tracing pictures, obtaining photographs, etc. I discovered about 40 pictures of this artist. Held, rather unkindly, called him the "poor man's Georges de la Tour", but this is not going to remain a true description for long! There is an interesting work by him in the National Gallery of Canada but none in public collections in the U.S.A. except a [[underlined]] Boy Singing [[/underlined]] in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. You will find many works by him illustrated in my article.

I do not mention your picture in my study because it only came to my notice in the spring of this year, and I gave Christie the attribution.

I am passing on your letter to our Managing Director so that he can deal with the last paragraph. I hope you will be hearing from him shortly.

Yours sincerely,

signed: Benedict Nicolson

cc: Mrs. Parker
Miss Morrison
Mrs. Hackl
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