Documents associated with: 82nd exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1864
Record 2 of 8
System Number: 11478
Date: 19 February [1864][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Henri Fantin-Latour[2]
Place: [Paris]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 1/33/16
Document Type: ALS[3]
7. Lindsey Row.
Old Battersea bridge
Chelsea -
Vendredi. Fev. le 19.'1864[4]'
Les deux bouquets [5]sont arrivés hier au soir, et en les recevant j'ai de suite écrit pour prier Mons. Coronio[6] de t'envoyer les 300. fs. Ta lettre m'arrive ce soir, donc mon cher Fantin j'avais deviné juste, et j'avais bien fait par instinct! - Les fleurs sont charmantes - fin et delicieu de couleur comme toujours avec toi - et vont je suis sur plaire aux possesseurs - Je te promets de venir - d'être chez toi pret à [p. 2] poser[7] le quinze du mois prochain - Si je le puis, je le ferais un ou deux jours plutot, mais dans tous les cas je me ferai un devoir d'être chez toi le 15. - Tu peux donc conter sur moi pour ce jour - si nul malheur ou maladie m'en empeche - ainsi gardes moi ma place - Rossetti[8] au contraire ne peut pas promettre - il m'a dit de te dire combien il le regrette et combien il aurait été heureux d'être dans ton tableau car il a la plus grande admiration pour tes oeuvres - mais comprenant maintenant l'importance de son arrivée à Paris pour une époque fixe, il m'a dit qu'il n'oserait pas s'engager car s'il était au dernier moment [p. 3] empeché par un évenement quelconque, il ne saurait jamais se pardonner - Quant à Alphonse[9] je suppose qu'il viendra - je le lui ai dit - et il m'a repondu qu'il te posera naturellement - Mais je ne l'ai pas vu depuis plus d'une semaine - Il est chez les Grecs[10] dans les environs de Londres - Il a fait un tres beau portrait[11] chez eux et il y fait, j'entend dire, un autre - Je t'écrirai encore une fois bientot et alors je pourrais te dire surement ses intentions à ce propos. - Maintenant mon cher Fantin fais moi un plaisir, dis moi si tu ne crois pas, par une lettre bien diplomatiq[ue] [p. 4] que j'ai l'intention d'écrire au Comte de Nieuwerkerke[12], je ne puisse me faire accorder un sursit de dix à quinze jours - Tu te rapelles bien mon petit cadeau[13] de l'an dernier? est ce que tu ne suppose pas qu'en revanche il pourrait me faire cette courtoisie surtout comme l'indulgence est pour un étranger? - Qu'en dis tu? J'écrirais - Alors j'apporte avec moi mes tableaux[14] le 15. et je pourrais les revoir et retoucher à mon aise la bas -
Adieu mon cher Fantin
reponds à ceci -
Whistler.
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
The two bouquets arrived yesterday evening, and when I got them I immediately wrote to ask Mr Coronio to send you the 300 fr. Your letter has arrived this evening, so my dear Fantin I guessed correctly, and I had done the right thing by instinct! - The flowers are charming - fine and delicious colour as always with you - and I'm sure their owners will like them - I promise you I shall come - to be with you ready to [p. 2] pose on the fifteenth of next month - If I can, I would make it a day or two sooner, but come what may I shall make a point of being with you on the 15th. - So you can count on me for that day - if no ill luck or ill health prevents me - so keep my place for me - Rossetti on the other hand can't promise - He told me to tell you how much he regrets this and how glad he would have been to be in your picture as he has the greatest admiration for your work but realising now the importance of his getting to Paris for a definite time, he told me that he dare not commit himself because if something or other were at the last moment [p. 3] to prevent him, he would never be able to forgive himself. - As for Alphonse I imagine he will come - I spoke to him - and he replied that of course he will pose for you - But I have not seen him for more than a week - He's with the Greeks close to London - He has done a very beautiful portrait while staying with them and he's doing another there, I hear - I shall write to you again soon and then I'll be able to tell you for certain what he means to do about this. - Now my dear Fantin, do me a kindness, tell me if you don't think that by means of a most diplomatic letter [p. 4] that I intend to write to the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, I could get myself a reprieve of ten days or a fortnight - You remember my little present of last year? Do you not suppose that in return he could do me this courtesy especially as the kindness is for a foreigner? What do you say? I would write - Anyway, I shall bring my pictures with me on the 15th and I shall be able to have another look at them and retouch them at leisure over there -
Goodbye, dear Fantin, and do reply to this
Notes:
1. 19 February [1864]
The year '1864' has been added, possibly by JW or in another hand. 19 February was a Friday, as stated, in 1864.
2. Henri Fantin-Latour
Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), artist [more].
3. ALS
'13' is written at the top of p. 1 in another hand.
4. 1864
Possibly written in another hand.
5. deux bouquets
Fantin-Latour painted at least one flower picture in 1864 but the purchaser is not known (H. Fantin-Latour, Bouquet de Fleurs (FL.260) (z108)).
6. Coronio
Georges Coronio (1831-1895), broker, banker and collector [more]. A year later Coronio bought Asters de Chine et fruits (H. Fantin-Latour, Fleurs et fruits (FL.277) (z107)), which is signed and dated 1865 (see Druick, Douglas and Michel Hoog, Fantin-Latour, Paris, 1982, cat. no. 32.)
7. poser
JW posed for H. Fantin-Latour, Hommage à Eugène Delacroix (FL.227) (z100), Musée du Louvre, collection Moreau. It was intended as a tribute to the artist, who had just died. It was exhibited at the Salon in 1864; see Druick and Hoog, op. cit., pp. 165-78, repr. p. 173.
8. Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), artist and poet [more].
9. Alphonse
Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), painter, etcher and art teacher [more]. He also posed for H. Fantin-Latour, Hommage à Eugène Delacroix (FL.227) (z100) (see above).
10. Grecs
Alexander Constantine Ionides (1810-1890), shipping merchant and collector [more], and family.
11. beau portrait
Unidentified.
12. Nieuwerkerke
Alfred Emilien O'Hara (1811-1892), Comte de Nieuwerkerke, sculptor, Directeur-General des Musées [more]. JW wrote to him on 3 February 1864 asking for a delay in submitting his work to the Salon.
13. cadeau
JW sent Nieuwerkerke some Thames etchings (see JW to Nieuwerkerke, 16 June 1863, and reply, 18 June, #09216, #02644).
14. tableaux
Instead of taking it to Paris, JW sent Wapping (YMSM 35) to the 96th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy, London, 1864.