Renaissance of Venus was Walter Crane's first large-scale painting. It was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. The painting was bought some years later by the painter George Frederick Watts. These letters concern the offer of the painting to the National Gallery of British Art (now Tate Britain) as part of the Watts bequest, and Crane's indignation at the Gallery's refusal to accept it. Crane writes at length on the appreciation received by this work in his Reminiscences, pp. 231-4. There are letters from Watts's widow, Mary Seton Watts, and Sir Edward Poynter, Director of the National Gallery.
The collection includes three small studies for this painting: see WCA/1/4/6 . For further letters from Mary Seton Watts, see WCA/2/1/1/22 and WCA/2/1/1/43.