A group of seven prints by Stanley Hayter, plus two each by Joan Ellis and Merlyn Evans, one each by Patrick Heron, Michael Kennedy, Cecil Mary Leslie and Marion Mitchell, and three by an unknown artist (18 prints in total) were transferred to the Gallery’s Prints and Drawings Study Room from a store in the Witt Library containing archival material of notable art historians with Courtauld Institute connections. They were discovered in a file of images (mostly photographic reproductions) of the work of twentieth-century British artists formed by R. H. Wilenski (1887-1975), art critic and historian, and author of the polemical book, The Modern Movement in Art (1927).

Wilenski was acquainted with many of the artists about whom he wrote. Most of the prints in the collection are in the form of greetings cards inscribed by the artists to Wilenski, indicating close friendships.

Transferred to the Samuel Courtauld Trust in 2017

Inscription: With best wishes for Christmas & the New Year from Merlyn and Margerie Evans