Documents associated with: Second Annual Exhibition of Modern Pictures, Corporation of Brighton, Royal Pavillion Gallery, Brighton, 1875
Record 3 of 6
System Number: 11866
Date: 4 September [1875][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Frederick Richards Leyland[2]
Place: [Liverpool]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection
Document Type: ALS
Dear Leyland -
I have received your cheque[3] for the £250 - you so kindly lend [sic] me and thank you very much -
I could come down now on Monday night but I am told that it would be of really great importance that I should be present at the opening of the Brighton Exhibition[4] on Wednesday - as they have given the place of honor to the Princess[5] [p. 2] (loaned by F. R. Leyland, en parenthese) and have generally done much to please - Morris[6] thinks that it would be very unwise in me not to meet the committee on that day - and that it might bring about many things - in the way of "flesh pots," &c.
Nothing else keeps me in town and I would if I do not appear on Tuesday morning, certainly return from Brighton and catch the night train for Liverpool - Now I have fallen upon such a grand piece of good fortune in the way of a model[7] with whom I have made an arrangement to sit to me altogether - with a view to at once going on with the two big pictures - She is simply adorable and comes by the way on Monday morning for the three girls.
Ever yours
J. A. McN. Whistler
2 Lindsey Houses - Chelsea
Sept. 4.
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Notes:
1. 4 September [1875]
Year date from reference to Brighton Exhibition (see below).
2. Frederick Richards Leyland
Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892), ship-owner and art collector [more].
3. cheque
Leyland paid JW money in advance on the portraits and other paintings commissioned, but not yet received.
4. Brighton Exhibition
Second Annual Exhibition of Modern Pictures, Corporation of Brighton, Royal Pavillion Gallery, Brighton, 1875. The preview was on Wednesday, 8 September 1875. JW exhibited four works, including La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine (YMSM 50) (see below), and Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay (YMSM 76) as Nocturne in Blue and Silver, (cat. no. 158).
5. Princess
La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine (YMSM 50), bought by Leyland by in November 1872. It was exhibited at Brighton in 1875 (cat. no. 156) as Arrangement in flesh colour and gray - La Princesse des pays de la Porcelaine.
6. Morris
Probably Philip Richard Morris (1833 or 1836-1902), painter [more].
7. model
The model whom JW had made an arrangement to pose 'altogether', (i.e. in the nude) is unidentified.
8. three girls
The Three Girls (YMSM 88), one of two large paintings commissioned by F. R. Leyland in 1867. JW had been working on it for several years and it was never completed.