UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 01868
Date: [c. 19 April 1884]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Sir Coutts Lindsay^[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler G223
Document Type: Ms/ALd^[3]

My dear Sir Coutts

I accept your rebuke and know that it must have been administered in the spirit of courteous kindness you have always shewn towards me

The picture you say you like is a portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell^[4] - and not of Lady Lonsdale^[5] Though but then you could no more see this painting than that of Mon Duret^[6] as both are sunken in & degraded & begrimed with [p. 2] dirt from their journey

When I looked upon Durets portrait in its present condition in the Gallery - I felt that without faith in me no, no one could well believe judge of its quality as worth in its present condition - faith alone

Still the man should have written legibly the labels at the back -

in me & my knowledge would make it a certainty that the work - when properly hung cleaned & varnished - would be the fine picture it was when I had painted it in my [p. 3] Studio

This faith my dear Sir Coutts I seriously believed you had in me - however I am sure it is only too charming in you to let me hang my strange things in the Grosvenor where if they do not do credit to your sense of Art ^judgment, from the popular point of view They somewhat establish perhaps for you a reputation for moral courage - in the face of the people here & ^{with the world abroad[7]} a certain ^{singularity of of appreciation - &} superior finesse in selecting for exhibiting upon your walls [p. 4] the curious production that, in their own Salon^[8], they delight to do honor to themselves. what they delight to do honor to themselves -

Kindly

I shall at once take send for Duret - and let ^{I had meant to have} propose^{d in its place} another Arrangement^[9] in his stead - ^{but I have been quite knocked up & too seedy for these East winds.}

With a thousand thanks
Always ^most sincerely Yrs

This document is protected by copyright.

Notes:

1.  [c. 19 April 1884]
This letter was drafted in reply to Lindsay's letter of 18 April 1884 (#01867).

2.  Sir Coutts Lindsay
Sir Coutts Lindsay (1824-1913), Bart., co-founder of the Grosvenor Gallery [more].

3.  Ms/ALd
The draft begins in the handwriting of Mary Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941), JW's model and mistress [more], with JW taking over from the end of page 3.

4.  portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell
Janey Sevilla Campbell (ca 1846 - d.1923), née Callander, Lady Archibald Campbell [more], subject of Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell (YMSM 242), which was accepted and hung at 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884.

5.  Lady Lonsdale
Gladys Mary Juliet Herbert (d.1917), Lady Lonsdale, later Countess de Grey [more], who was never painted by JW.

6.  Mon Duret
Théodore Duret (1838-1927), art critic and collector [more]. Lindsay had refused to accept Arrangement en couleur chair et noir: Portrait de Théodore Duret (YMSM 252).

7.  with the world abroad
In this sentence, 'with the world abroad', 'singularity of of appreciation - &' and 'exhibiting upon your walls' were added in JW's hand. The whole of p. 4 is in his hand.

8.  Salon
The portrait of Duret was eventually exhibited at 102nd exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1884.

9.  Arrangement
Possibly Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux (YMSM 228) or Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux (YMSM 229).