Identity:
Robert Hichens Camden Harrison was a stockbroker and collector.
Life:
R. H. Harrison was a stockbroker in the London firm of Hichens, Harrison and Co. Ernest George and Peto designed Shiplake Court, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, a large Tudor house of diapered red brick, for him around 1889-90. His London address was 73 Cromwell Road, S.W. (#08188). He was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire from 1900 and Treasurer of the London Symphony Concerts.
On 3 April 1886, at William Graham's auction sale at Christie's, Harrison purchased Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (YMSM 140) for 60 guineas. He lent it to Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892. In 1905 he sold it to the National Art Collections Fund for £2000.
Bibliography:
Sir George Henschel, Musings and Memories of a Musician, London, 1918, p. 331; Mark Girouard, The Victorian Country House, Oxford, 1971, p. 187; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.