Documents associated with: 4th Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Munich, 1889
Record 4 of 5
System Number: 13489
Date: [April 1889][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Deborah Delano Haden[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: FGA Whistler 19
Credit Line: Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer
Document Type: ALS
'19'[3]
My dear Sis -
Nellie[4] tells me that you would like to have the proper story of the latest scalp[5] I have gracefully taken -
Quite right too! - you ought to know - History should be neatly written, so I enclose a truthful account - from the "Sporting & Dramatic News[6]", than which [p. 2] there could, in such matters, be no greater authority -
Write me a line to say you received it all right, and that you are pleased -
Always your affectionate brother
J McN. Whistler
Did Willie[7] tell you that I had been elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Münich[8]? - and now I have had a letter from the German Ambassador[9] with the Official announcement that H. R. H. the Prince Luitpold[10], Regent of Bavaria, has, "in the name of His Majesty, been graciously pleased" to confer upon me the Order of the Holy St. Michael! -
"Voila[11]! - ce que l'on dit de moi, dans la Gazette de Hol[l]ande!!"
Tower House
28. Tite Street - Chelsea
London
When you come up to town do come and see us - You and Trixie[12] couldn't help liking each other
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [April 1889]
Dated by reference to Bavarian honours (see below). There is also a copy of this letter (#01923).
2. Deborah Delano Haden
Deborah ('Debo' or 'Sis') Delano Haden (1825-1908), née Whistler, JW's half-sister [more].
3. '19'
In unknown hand.
4. Nellie
Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917), née Ellen Ionides, JW's sister-in-law [more].
5. scalp
Possibly a dispute with the Royal Society of British Artists. See, for instance, JW's letter to H. H. Cauty, 30 March 1889 (#09398).
6. Sporting & Dramatic News
Reference not identified.
7. Willie
William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), physician, JW's brother [more].
8. Royal Academy of Münich
JW had been awarded a gold medal for works exhibited at 4th Internationale Kunst-Austellung, Munich, 1889.
9. German Ambassador
Seraphim Eugène Spuller (1835-1893), politician and writer, Ministère de l'instruction publique et des beaux-arts [more]?
10. Prince Luitpold
Karl Joseph Wilhelm Ludwig Luitpold (1821-1912), Prince Regent of Bavaria [more].
11. Voila
'Voila ... Holande', Fr., 'This is what they say of me, in the Dutch Gazette'. The quotation has not been identified.
12. Trixie
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].