ABSTRACT
John Henderson’s private catalogue offers an excellent basis of comparison when studied in conjunction with the catalogue of a later event, a public or semi-public one this time: the exhibition of “Persian and Arab Art” organised by the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1885. The exhibitions there were really “semi-public,” since they were only accessible on invitation by a club member or one of his friends, as in the case of the 1885 exhibition of Persian and Arab art. The idea for the exhibition of Persian and Arab Art was launched by Charles Drury Fortnum and was announced at the Committee Meeting of 4 December 1884. In 1885 then, when working on the catalogue of the Persian exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, Wallis had already lived several distinct lives, as a painter, as a tragic lover, as a great traveller and as a collector.
