EDWARD PERRY WARREN and Tomasso Virzi letters to Roger Fry, 1910 by Edward Perry Warren (secretarial), Tommaso / Thomas Virzi - 1910

[ROGER FRY ASSOCIATION; EDWARD PERRY WARREN, TOMMASO VIRZI, 1910] ROGER FRY RECEIVES LETTERS RELATING TO HIS CONSULTATION REGARDING AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE/OLD MASTER PAINTING, a secretarial letter for Edward Perry Warren and a letter by Tommaso Virzi both having to do with Warren's introduction of Virzi to Roger Fry for the purpose of getting Fry to help in identifying the artist of a Renaissance/Old Master painting Virzi inherited from his uncle…the 2 letters over 3 pages of a sheet folded to make 4 pages, 4-1/2" x 7", in pen dated September 20, 1910, letterhead Grosvenor Hotel, London with crest…Edward Perry Warren letter in the handwriting of his secretary Frank Geary and signed by Geary to Roger Fry, Durbin, Guildford, Surrey, first 2 pages/about 170 words, in part, "This is to present a trusted friend of mine, Signor Tommaso Virzi. To him was bequeathed by his uncle a picture of which you have already heard and, I think, seen a photo of it. He now has it in London and has shown it to Cook [connected to the Burlington Fine Arts Club] and to Holroyd [English artist and director of the National Gallery]. Before it was cleaned [Bernard] Berenson thought uncertainly of Rafael for its painter…Virzi's plan is to lend it for a period of years to the National Gallery that it may be discussed…You should see [the painting] at the Grosvenor Hotel"…Tommaso Virzi letter Roger Fry, Esq., on page 3 (last page blank) about 60 words, in part, "It is very kind of Mr. Warren to introduce me to you…I should be very glad to have a meet with you and show you my painting"…the letters give a picture of the leading, important late 19th/early 20th century art dealer and collector Edward Perry Warrens's network of associates, how he brought them together for various projects, and how they worked on this one particular project of the painting Tommaso Virzi inherited; letters authenticated by seller with lifetime guarantee; NOTES: EDWARD PERRY WARREN: 1860-1928, American art collector who took up resident in England after graduating from Oxford, and the author of works proposing an idealized view of homosexual relationships. the British art historian John Davidson Beazley said, "Warren and Marshall [his companion and business partner] had complete control of the market in classical antiquities. Almost everything that was good, whether a new find or an old, came to them for first refusal. Competition all but ceased." Another scholar said that "the combined works the two men were responsible for bringing to Boston and New York represent the greatest collection of Greek and Roman art in the world" (wikipedia); ROGER FRY: 1866-1934, English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism (wikipedia); TOMASSO VIRZI: 1881-1974, a major coin collector of the 20th century also with an interest in art and antiquities; PROVENANCE: item of the two letters was among a large group of Edward PerryWarren letters with some related material on his activities acquired at an estate sale in Fairfield County, Connecticut, most of the nearly 100 letters by Warren with some by his secretary Frank Gearing for Warren were written to Tommaso Virzi /// CONDITION: well-preserved, negligible wear.