Identity:

Charles William Deschamps was the nephew of the powerful Belgian art dealer Ernest Gambart. He had a son born on 31 August 1883 and a daughter, born on 6 October 1884.

Life:

Deschamps was a London art dealer who was appointed Secretary of the Society of French Artists in 1872. He went on to own a gallery at 1a, New Bond Street during the 1880s. He was a regular correspondent with JW in the 1870s and 1880s and sold a number of the artist's paintings, pastels and watercolours, including Trouville (YMSM 70), The White Girl (M.471) and Note in Violet and Green (M.1074). JW wrote to Deschamps in 1872 concerning Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge (YMSM 139) which according to Walter Greaves had been commissioned for Leyland but which JW wanted to keep for himself. Deschamps was said to have himself owned The Japanese Parasol (M.1228) and On the Pier (M.1229).

Bibliography:

Births, The Times, London, 4 September 1883, p. 1; Births, The Times, London, 10 October 1884, p. 1; Maas, Jeremy, Gambart: Prince of the Victorian art World, London, 1975; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980; Walkley, Giles, Artists' houses in London 1764-1914, Aldershot, 1994; MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995.