UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Documents associated with: 4th Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Munich, 1889
Record 5 of 5

System Number: 13631
Date: [May 1889?][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac[2]
Place: [Paris?]
Repository: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Call Number: Nouv. Acq. Fr. 15335, f. 26
Document Type: ALS[3]


Vous ne vouliez pas y être! -[4]

Vous avez donc cru que je me laissais approuver à la fin? -

[butterfly signature]


This document is protected by copyright.


Translation:

You did not want to be there!

So you thought that I was developing a taste for being acclaimed? -


Notes:

1.  [May 1889?]
Dated by possible reference to banquets (see below).

2.  Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921), Symbolist writer and poet, and collector [more].

3.  ALS
Published by Newton, Joy, La Chauve-Souris et le Papillon. Correspondance Montesquiou-Whistler, Glasgow, 1990, no. 17, pp. 54-55. A copy was made in Whistler's letterbook (#03014).

4.  y être! -
Probably a reference to the banquets offered to JW by his friends, on 28 April 1889 in Paris, and 1 May in London, to celebrate his success at 4th Internationale Kunst-Austellung, Munich, 1889. He had been awarded a 1st class gold medal, and was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and given the cross of the Order of St Michael of Bavaria.