David A. Robertson Collection on Sir Charles Eastlake

This collection consists of original correspondence and secondary source material on Sir Charles Eastlake, gathered by David A. Robertson in the course of researching his book 'Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World' (1978); correspondence files with individuals and institutions relating to permission to reproduce photographs of paintings or quote from manuscripts and published works; publication files relating to the design and production of the book, and post-publication correspondence.

Charles Lock Eastlake was born in Plymouth in 1793. He decided to become an historical painter, and was admitted to the antique school of the Royal Academy in 1809. In 1820, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and became a full member of the Academy in 1830. During the period from 1816-1830, when he was living in Rome, Eastlake developed an extensive and expert knowledge of art, together with a good reputation as an artist.

In 1842, Eastlake was appointed Librarian of the Royal Academy, and from 1843-1847 was Keeper of the National Gallery. After resigning from the post of Keeper Eastlake was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1850 and was knighted in the same year. From 1850-1855 Eastlake was a Trustee of the National Gallery. He was appointed to the newly created post of Director of the National Gallery in 1855.

Eastlake died during his continental trip of 1865, in Pisa on December 24. He was buried at Florence, but at the desire of the Royal Academy his body was returned to England and buried at Kensal Green cemetery. During his employment as Director Eastlake acquired 139 pictures for the National Gallery collection. These acquisitions were of central importance in establishing the international reputation of the Gallery.

David Allan Robertson Jr. was born in 1915 and educated at Gilman School, Baltimore, and Princeton University (undergraduate class of 1936), where he graduated with High Honours and a double major in English and German (he wrote his senior thesis on Elizabethan voyages), was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of Colonial Club; in 1940, he was awarded a PhD in English.

From 1936-38, Robertson was a Henry Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met and later married (in 1940) Dr Beridge Ruth Leigh-Mallory (1917-1953), a paediatrician and daughter of the English mountaineer George Leigh-Mallory, who had died on Mount Everest in 1924.

During World War II, Robertson served three years in the Washington office of the Chief of Naval Operations as a lieutenant. In 1946, he was ranked as a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve.

In 1940, he joined the Department of English at Barnard College in New York as Instructor in English; in 1950 he was awarded an associate professorship and tenure. Following the death of his wife in 1953, he took six months' sabbatical leave in England to research his book on George Mallory and begin recovering from his loss; he married Victoria Adams Bryer in 1964. Robertson was promoted to full professor in 1956 and served the first of three terms as chairman of the Department of English (1956- 59, 1964-67 and 1975-77). He was appointed as Millicent Carey McIntosh Professor of English in 1966, a position he held until his retirement in 1986. He had many interests, including mountaineering (he co-edited the American Alpine Journal), and wrote three books: 'George Mallory' (London, Faber, 1969); 'Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978); and 'North of India: some 19th century Europeans in the Himalayan regions and Central Asia' (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 1998).

Robertson served Princeton on several department advisory committees. Later, after moving to Princeton in 1991, he was named chairman of the Friends of the Princeton University Library. He died on 19 July 2004, aged 88.

(Sources: Princeton Alumni Weekly and Barnard Alumnae Magazine, Summer 1981)

Gift of Susan Robertson, Aug 2024.

National Gallery Archive: NG16/290: Registry Files: miscellaneous correspondence; letter from David Robertson to Andrew McIntosh Patrick, 26 Nov 1973, tipped into a copy of 'Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World' (1978). Material in other repositories: President's Office Records, 1952-2013; David A. Robertson, 1953-1978, box 65, folder 25; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College. Robertson, David Allan; Christian Gauss Papers, C0310, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.