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Maugham Catalogue

The Maugham Catalogue

Following a tip-off from the painter and collector Hugh Lane about the sale of a Samuel De Wilde theatrical painting, propped up amongst a lot of bric-a-brac in the window of a curio shop in Pimlico, ("They're only asking forty-five pounds for it, you're a dramatist, you ought to buy it.") Maugham began collecting in the years before the First World War. Some time later, at the sale of Sir Henry Irving's pictures at Christie's Maugham bought Zoffany's 'Venice Preserved' for £29, and a small version of Reynold's 'Garrick between Comedy and Tragedy'; both had been in the possession of Garrick. After this he bought steadily.

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Entry for painting by John Zoffany of David Garrick as Sir John Brute

In 1948 Maugham presented his collection of theatrical paintings, generally reckoned to be the best of its kind with the exception of that of the Garrick Club, to the Trustees of the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre Trust (SMNT), for eventual hanging at the National Theatre, which at this time was still no more than a concept. In 1951 the trustees of the SMNT arranged for the exhibition of the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum

   I had spent so many years making it [the collection] that I was grieved to think that it would be dispersed at my death in Christie's auction rooms...The theatres they build now are severely functional... but they are cold. They are apt to make you feel that you have come to the playhouse to undergo an ordeal rather than to enjoy an entertainment. It seemed to me that my pictures in the foyer and on the stairs of a new theatre would a trifle mitigate the austerity of the architect's design. I offered them to the trustees of the National Theatre and they were good enough to accept them.
Somerset Maugham		   

The above comes from Maugham's introduction to the catalogue published in 1954 by Heinemann under the title The Artist and the Theatre. At this time the realisation of the concept of a National Theatre with the formation of the NT Board and the appointment of its first Director was still seven years away. The catalogue held in the NT Archive is one of four typescript catalogues with manuscript notes: a master and a working copy stayed with Mander and Mitchenson and a copy was given to Somerset Maugham.

The catalogue was prepared (1952-1954) by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, who later offered their own vast collection of theatre memorabilia to the National Theatre. The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection is now housed in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. From the inception of the National in 1963 Mander and Mitchenson have provided source images and research for National Theatre programmes.

Image of Maugham Catalogue contents page
Maugham Catalogue contents page


                    
Image of Maugham Catalogue page
Page from the Maugham Catalogue
 
When the new NT building was complete, plans for the hanging there of the Maugham collection met with some resistance from the architect, Denys Lasdun, and members of the Executive who felt these paintings did not accord with the architectural 'feel' of the new building. After pressure from interested parties the NT decided, on opening on the South Bank, to display a number of oil paintings in the NT public restaurant, then called 'Ovations'. The whole collection was made available for public display in 1980 and what was intended as a permanent exhibition was opened 18 February 1981, and a fresh catalogue published (Guide to the Maugham Collection of Theatrical Paintings), with new text by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, and contributions from Ralph Richardson, Denys Sutton and Iain Mackintosh. Unfortunately, due to worries concerning the safety of the paintings, the display had to be discontinued. In view of Maugham's wish that the collection be kept together, a loan arrangement was reached with the V&A Theatre Museum in Covent Garden to display the collection. The pictures have hung there from 1994; the NT recently extended this loan and the loan of a collection of Maugham's manuscripts to the Theatre Museum until 2008.