University of Virginia Library

Our mutual friend and benefactor, Mrs. Preston Davie, has now given
each of our institutions a work of art. To the University in 1956 came a
small (25 3/8″h × 19 1/2″w) portrait of Raleigh, and to the Museum in
1957, a larger (45″h × 32 1/2″w) portrait of Burke. The official
appraisals by French and Company are. Raleigh $7,500, Burke $8,500. I
enclose photographs of each portrait.

You most generously lent the Raleigh portrait to us for our England's
World of 1607 exhibition, staged during the spring and summer of 1957 as
our contribution to the Jamestown Festival; and since the closing of this
display the portrait has been on view in our gallery devoted to English
art of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here we have contemporary portraits
of persons related historically to Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale, James I
and his wife, Anne of Denmark, etc., including a rare painting of William
Byrd I, as a boy, when he was in England being "educated".

The Raleigh portrait adds so much to this appropriate and growing
group that our Trustees and Staff would like very much to make the
arrangement permanent. Also, we already have a portrait by Copley, who
painted the Burke. Therefore, we have the following proposal to make to
you.

We would like to give you the Burke in return for the Raleigh. Mrs.
Davie has been consulted about this and is entirely agreeable. Also, Mr.
William B. O'Neal, Curator of your Museum of Fine Arts at the University,
has personally inspected both portraits and written a report (copy
attached) giving his favorable reactions to our proposal.

We hope that the exchange will also appeal to you, and that it soon
can be consummated officially. Here, apparently, we have one of those
rare occasions where all concerned will be benefitted.