Document associated with: [Exhibition of lithographs], T. Way's printing office, 21 Wellington Street, London, August 1878
Record 1 of 1
System Number: 11137
Date: [7 August 1878][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Published[3]
Document Type: PLfc
Savile Club
Dear 'Pic'[4] -
Do like a good chap make a point of looking in tomorrow at Ways[5] some time or other. I do so want you to see the lovely exhibition of lithographs[6] framed and hung up - and then you must shove some articles about them into the papers at once.
Do on your way to town look round at the old place - and see the two portraits[7] and tell me whether you think them superb or not. [...]
[butterfly signature]
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Notes:
1. [7 August 1878]
Date published in catalogue (see below).
2. Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton
Walter Theodore Watts (later Watts-Dunton) (1832-1914), solicitor, novelist and poet [more].
3. Published
Extracted in Maggs sale catalogue, London, No. 417, Christmas 1921, cat. no. 3268, described as 'A. L. S ... 3 pp. Oblong 8vo ... With envelope. £7 10s'. The original has not been traced, and neither have details of the envelope been preserved.
4. Pic
'Pic' was short for 'Piccadilly'. Watts-Dunton was editor of the short-lived weekly Piccadilly: Town and Country Life, which was launched in May and failed in July 1878.
5. Way
Thomas Way (1837-1915), lithographic printer [more]. He had prepared and printed the stones for JW's lithotints for Piccadilly (see #11136, #07381).
6. exhibition of lithographs
It is not clear how many works were on exhibition, but they must have included JW's lithotints, The Toilet (C.10) and The Broad Bridge (C.11), and Early Morning (C.9) and The Tall Bridge (C.12) which had been drawn for Piccadilly. The first two were published on 4 and 11 July 1878, but the journal failed before the others could be issued with the July 18 issue (see Martha Tedeschi and Britt Salvesen, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Chicago, 1998, pp. 66-83).
7. two portraits
JW was working on Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder (YMSM 203). In addition, several portraits oscillated between his studio and H. Graves and Co., as security for advances of money. These included Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101) and Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137), as well as portraits of Maud Franklin, such as Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket (YMSM 181) and Arrangement in Yellow and Grey: Effie Deans (YMSM 183). The 'old place' they are in is probably 96 Cheyne Walk, as JW was in the process of moving to the White House.