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.
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
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.
