Documents associated with: Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters, Amsterdam, 1889
Record 16 of 18
System Number: 11332
Date: [November 1889?][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Theodore Child[2]
Place: [Paris?]
Repository: Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Call Number: George A. Lucas Collection Archives, Letters - James McNeill Whistler to Theodore Child no. 9
Document Type: ALS/TLc
Dear Mr Child -
I hear from Osgood[3] that you have passed through town - and had apparently no further curiosity about the "other Venice[4]", since you never came to look at the new proofs! -
Such successful indifference has, I need not say, filled me with pique and amazement! I shall end by bringing them to you! -
Dont you think that Theoc' [sic] might remember again, in tomorrow's Gossip, the same little story you told me of the Grande Medaille d'honneur[5] that would have been awarded had there been more paintings - or had not the people here been disagreable [sic] and refused to lend -
This might not be mal à propos, and would [p. 2][6] I doubt not add to the pleasing sadness of Suffolk Street[7] when they read your announcement of the red ribbon[8], upon which you have not yet congratulated me.
Une idée! - Why not make a bouquet of it, and pile on the Gold Medal of Amsterdam[9]! It has never been whispered here in the Press - and would be news quite fresh for Edmund[10].
A bien tôt
[butterfly signature]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [November 1889?]
Dated by reference to medal (see below).
2. Theodore Child
Theodore Child (1846-1892), journalist and art critic [more].
3. Osgood
James Ripley Osgood (1836-1892), agent for Harper and Bros, publishers [more].
4. other Venice
'Holland set', 1889 (K.402-416) (excat 10).
5. Grande Medaille d'honneur
Not identified.
6. [p. 2]
Page one is transcribed from the original in the Baltimore Museum of Art. However, the remainder of the original letter is missing and so this transcription relies from this point onwards upon a typescript copy in the Library of Congress (PWC 13/1189/53).
7. Suffolk Street
JW had been President of the Society of British Artists 1886-88. The premises were in Suffolk Street.
8. red ribbon
The ribbon of the Légion d'honneur, to be worn in a button-hole.
9. Gold Medal of Amsterdam
JW was awarded a gold medal for all his exhibits at Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters, Amsterdam, 1889.
10. Edmund
Edmund Hodgson Yates (1831-1894), novelist, 'Atlas' columnist and editor-proprietor of the World [more].