Documents associated with: 97th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy, London, 1865
Record 8 of 14
System Number: 02880
Date: 13 June 1865
Author: Thomas Taylor[1]
Place: London
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: Whistler LB 12/59
Document Type: ALS
Private & Confidential
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT OFFICE,
8, RICHMOND TERRACE,
WHITEHALL, S. W.
June 13 1865
My Dear Whistler
It is right you shd know that in two successive articles on the R.A. Exhibition in the Times[2], I gave considerable space to a detailed notice of your pictures[3]. In both cases these notices were struck out, I [p. 2] presume, by the Editor. I am anxious you shd know that I had not passed over your pictures unregarded. I must ask you to treat this letter as confidential. -
[p. 3] I shall make one more attempt to introduce my notice of your pictures, but as the two already made have been unsuccessful it is very likely that the third may have no better result.
[p. 4] I feel much annoyed, of course, at any cuts or chan Editorial cuts being made in my articles - But the Editor claims the right to make such cuts in all cases of all writers, and, balancing the consequence of submitting to his power in this respect, and the reasons in favor of continuing to write, I think it most expedient in the [illegible] interest less I consider in the matter, that of contemporary art & artists, to 'grin & bear it'. You must[4] not therefore place[5] me in a painful position by giving publicity to this letter, though I cannot object to your making it known among your private friends that my references to your pictures have been struck out of my articles on the Academy exhibition.
Believe me
Yours truly
Tom Taylor
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Thomas Taylor
Thomas ('Tom') Taylor (1817-1880), civil servant, dramatist, art critic, and editor of Punch from 1874-1880 [more].
2. Times
See [Tom Taylor], 'The Exhibition of the Royal Academy Second Notice', Times, 8 May 1865, p. 8, and [Tom Taylor] 'Royal Academy: Fourth Notice,' Times, 24 May 1865, p. 6. In fact, the article dated 24 May discusses Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (YMSM 52) at some length. It was then on view in 97th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy, London, 1865, cat. no. 530.
3. pictures
Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge (YMSM 33), Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (YMSM 52), The Scarf (YMSM 59), Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen (YMSM 60) were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865 (cat. nos. 343, 530, 569, 90).
4. you must
The lines 'and the reasons ... you must' are written at right-angles in margins and at the top of p. 4.
5. not therefore place
The remainder of the letter text from the words 'not therefore place' is written at right-angles at the top of pp. 2-3 and also in the left-hand margin of p. 3.