[ Peter Wardle, British portrait painter. ] Around 90 items from his papers, including incoming material relating to his work for the National Portraiture Association; correspondence with Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford; receipts; payslips; tax.

Peter Wardle studied at Leicester School of Art and the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford. He began his career as a professional portrait painter and sculptor in the 1970s, and has work in a number of institutions including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Ten of his works in the National Portrait Gallery collection include portraits of Athol Fugard, H. J. Eysenck and Edmund Blunden. He was also responsible for the portrait of Sir Geoffrey Keynes used as the frontispiece to his 1973 festschift. The present collection, containing around ninety items, is in aged and worn condition. Twenty-six of the items relate to the National Portraiture Association, of which Henry Moore was the 'Scholarship Fund Patron', and regarding which see a sarcastically-critical article in the Observer, 14 October 1973 ('For Art's Sake'), which presents the organisation as a snobbish pseudo-charity whose director William Deeves is a 'marketing-man'. There are nine items on the organisation's letterhead, including a seven-page document titled 'Follow-up to meeting held at the Rembrandt Hotel on 5th January 1974', rebutting a document presented to the NPA by eleven artists. (The artists' document (described by Deeves as containing 'so much codswallop') is also present, headed 'Artists' Declaration' and dated 14 December 1973.) Also present is a circular copy of a letter from Deeves to Maurice Bradshaw of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, with a copy of a Times article 'Picture Story' (30 November 1973), against which Deeves defends the organisation: 'it was perhaps inevitable that the novelty of our Schools Programme should raise eyebrows […] most families commissioning through the Association are commissioning their first portrait, at an uncompetitive fee, and without the choice of a named artist'. There is also a four-page document, with covering letter, on 'Future Fees'. There are a number of letters to Wardle from Deeves, mostly signed 'Bill', making arrangements for sittings and discussing arrangements and terms. Also present are three publicity leaflets (one in poor condition), and three letters to Wardle from satisfied parents of children whose portraits he had painted, and another arranging for Wardle to paint the portrait of a child after he had been the subject of one by another NPA artist, which was 'unrecognisable (by even the staff)' of his school Pangbourne College. In addition to the NPA material, nine items concern to Wardle's efforts to get a grant towards his son's studies at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford. These include a signed autograph draft of a letter from Wardle, putting the case [to Berkshire County Council] for 'a reconsideration of his need for a grant'; a copy of a letter from the Ruskin Master of Drawing, Philip Morsberger, dated 10 November 1973, remarking on Mathew Wardle's promise and progress, and supporting his father's application, and two letters from the school secretary Iris Sumpter; also three items from Berkshire County Council. The fifty-eight other items comprise: twenty-two invoices from the NPA, reflecting Wardle's work for the organisation during the period; thirteen miscellaneous receipts; three Income Tax payslips and two communications from HM Inspector of Taxes; and eighteen other miscellaneous items, including a long ALS from A. B. T. Davey, who appears to have been acting as Wardle's agent ('Shall I advertise you as a portrait painter in the Islington Gazette? That might rustle up some patronage amongst the local rich') and a Rugby School 'Drawing Programme - 2nd/3rd February | Mr. Peter Wardle'.