UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 13639
Date: [7 December 1887]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Mrs Maxse^[2]
Place: London
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler M517
Document Type: ALS

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BEEFSTEAK CLUB,
KING WILLIAM STREET,
STRAND, W. C.

Impossible dear Mrs [Cissy?]!

and I am so sorry - for I should have been delighted to make the tour of the Royal Galleries^[3]! with you and my special favorite your gifted young daughter^[4] - but I have an appointment with [p. 2] a sitter^[5] on Thursday that I cannot put aside -

But remember you are engaged to me for a dinner - and I propose Friday Saturday this week -

Do write me a line to say if that day suit[s] you -

Suppose we say the East Room at the Criterion^[6] at 8. o'clock -

I will ask the Widdie and Pellegrini^[7] - Will this do? -

Send me a line here -

and believe me always devotedly

[butterfly signature]

You came so late on Sunday? -

This document is protected by copyright.

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Envelope:

To
Mrs Maxse -
15 - Alexander Square -
Brompton -
S. W.
[stamp:] POSTAGE AND INLAND REVENUE / ONE PENNY
[postmark:] LONDON. W. C. / 15 / 7 / DE 7 / 87

[embossed on verso:] BEEFSTEAK CLUB.

[postmark on verso:] LONDON. S. W / A P / DE 7 / 87

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Notes:

1.  [7 December 1887]
Dated from postmark.

2.  Mrs Maxse
Mrs Maxse, a Chelsea acquaintance of JW.

3.  Royal Galleries
Mrs Maxse was a collector, and this may mean her own gallery rather than Queen Victoria's collection.

4.  daughter
Miss Maxse, daughter of Mrs Maxse, a Chelsea friend.

5.  sitter
Possibly Ellen Melicent Sickert (1848-1914), née Cobden, writer [more], who may have been sitting for Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert (YMSM 338), or her husband, who posed for several portraits (see Sketch Portrait of Walter Sickert (YMSM 350)).

6.  Criterion
The Criterion Restaurant at Piccadilly, a respectably opulent venue.

7.  Widdie and Pellegrini
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]; and Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), alias 'Ape', cartoonist for Vanity Fair, designer and lithographer [more].