Autograph letter signed by artist Henry Woods to engraver Lumb Stocks 1882

WOODS, Henry (1846–1921). Autograph letter signed to engraver Lumb Stocks.
Casa Raffaeli, 940 San Trovaso, Venice, 2 February 1882.
 
1 sheet, written on one side. Very good condition. Light age-toning, small crease to upper corner.
 
A letter written from Woods’s Venetian residence at San Trovaso during the early phase of his long Italian career. Addressed to Lumb Stocks (1812–1892), Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy and a senior figure within the London art world, Woods thanks him for a very kind letter of congratulation and remarks that “My work is well advanced, but many difficulties have yet to come in my large picture… I hope you are getting on well with your picture for the R.A.” He notes that he has been able to work out of doors throughout the Venetian winter.
 
By 1882 Woods, though only thirty-six, had already established himself as a successful exhibitor at the Royal Academy and was becoming known for the carefully observed Venetian genre scenes that would define his reputation. Stocks, over thirty years his senior, was a respected engraver associated with the Royal Academy and The Art Journal, and regularly engraved after leading painters of the day.