Albert Letchford was born in Trieste in 1866, the son of Thomas and Eliza Letchford.[1][2] He completed his artistic training in Venice and Paris, and travelled to Egypt where he made a living from small commissions.[3]
He met Sir Richard Francis Burton at the house of the English novelist Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé) in Florence,[4] though both were living in Trieste at the time. Burton had been British Consul there since 1872.[5]
Burton's wife Isabel commissioned Letchford to paint four views from the windows of Villa Gossleth (now Villa Economo), their residence in Trieste,[6] and nine of their favourite interiors, including one of Burton studying in his bedroom.[7] Letchford became the Burtons' "Court Painter",[8] frequently working in their house, and painted a life-size portrait of Burton fencing. These paintings now form part of the Burton Collection, housed in Orleans House Gallery, London.[9]
On Burton's death on 20 October 1890, his widow commissioned Letchford to make plaster casts of Burton's head, hand and foot. [10] He and his sister Daisy had become trusted acquaintances of Isabel who, fearing for her sanity, signed a power of attorney to her doctor and to Letchford, and appointed them as her executors.[11]
After Isabel Burton's departure from Trieste for England, Letchford and his family moved to Naples, where he produced seventy-two illustrations for the 12-volume Library Edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night published by H.S.Nichols & Co, London in 1897.
He died in Naples on 24 July 1905 and was buried there in the English Cemetery, together with other members of his family.[12]
References
^Modaffari & Zilli (ed.) Sir Richard F. Burton: Trieste e l'esplorazione (Trieste: Comunicarte Edizioni, 2019) p.104
