UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 03240
Date: [26 April 1894]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Alexander Reid^[2]
Place: Glasgow
Repository: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: FGA Whistler 240
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^[3]

---

110. Rue du Bac -

Dear Mr Reid -

Mr Howell^[4] was a very clever & a very queer fish - and I never did any copy^[5] of anything of the kind - This however would not in any way have deterred him in carrying out any sale that might have been assisted by such fable! -

I shall of course say nothing of your proposal about the portraits^[6] - and shall wait for further details from yourself -

[p. 2] I am delighted to hear of the great success of the new rooms -

When are you coming over to see the Salon^[7]? -

You wanted me always to tell you of the possible acquiring of any of the old works - Now I have the little picture that used to be at my brother's^[8] - myself in the studio - with a girl in white seated on sofa and another [p. 3] girl in flesh coloured Japanese dress, standing -

You know the picture - Will you give £250 net. for it - I cannot say fairer -

You know the painting - a beauty of its kind - and I should think you would do excellent business with it -

Very Sincerely Yrs

J McNeill Whistler

This document is protected by copyright.

---

Envelope:

'A 4'
'12'

To
Alexander Reid. Esq
Société des Beaux Arts
227. West George Street -
Glasgow -
Écosse
[stamp, illegible]
[postmark:] PARIS - [57?] / [...] / [2E?] 26 / AVRIL / 94
[postmark on verso, illegible]

'120
  30
  45
  30

 330
[240?]'

---

Notes:

1.  [26 April 1894]
Dated from postmark.

2.  Alexander Reid
Alexander Reid (1854-1936), Glasgow dealer [more].

3.  ALS
A copy in the hand of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more], is in GUL Whistler LB 4/75/2-76/1.

4.  Mr. Howell
Charles Augustus ('Owl') Howell (1840? - d.1890), entrepreneur [more].

5.  never did any copy
It is not known what copy was being discussed.

6.  proposal about the portraits
On 27 March 1894, Reid wrote to JW regarding a portrait commission in Scotland (#05159). JW replied on 3 April 1894 (#03204) that the idea was 'most interesting', but by 25 April had not received any further details (#03239).

7.  Salon
4th Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894.

8.  little picture that used to be at my brother's
Whistler in his Studio (YMSM 63) was owned by William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), physician, JW's brother [more]. It was eventually sold to the Goupil Gallery, London, in December 1896 for £400 (see #07023).