Documents associated with: 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884
Record 9 of 14
System Number: 00327
Date: 30 June [1884][1]
Author: Joseph Edgar Boehm[2]
Place: London
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler B103
Document Type: ALS
30 June
THE AVENUE,
76, FULHAM ROAD, S. W.
My dear Mac
Since Friday last I have been in bed but had hopes to be able to go out yesterday & therefore did not write sooner - I am very shaky & down - I have been & enjoyed the Exhib. at Dowsdwell[3] [sic] amazingly - The catalogue with the aphorismms[4] [sic] are worthy of Goethe[5]
[p. 2] I found some new & quite delicious bits there[.] If I were to mention all I should like to possess I should have to copy the catalogue[.] two I could have afforded are sold - & I regret sincerely the quite exquisite Blue & silver (50)[6][;] I wish I had gone on the first day -
[p. 3] I did not think Lady Archy Archibald C.[7] badly hung - & think it as lovely as it is vigorous, if it were less high it would perhaps be better for the perspective of the floor in the picture but it is very fine[,] the lines & composition are grand & simple & full of grace -
All the "Spumus Infernalis[8]" is out of me - Jaundice staring me in the face [p. 4] I look like my portrait by Rickard[9]! & shall go away to get well. I am so sorry you can't come to dinner - & hope to be well enough on Sunday to go & see you - & to get to Dowsdell once more before -
always Yours
J E Boehm
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Notes:
1. 30 June [1884]
Dated by reference to exhibition (see below).
2. Joseph Edgar Boehm
Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890), sculptor [more].
3. Exhib. at Dowsdwell
'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884.
4. catalogue with the aphorismms
James McNeill Whistler, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', exhibition catalogue, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884, includes JW's 'Proposition'.
5. Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), poet, novelist and dramatist [more].
6. Blue & silver (50)
Probably Blue and silver - The lslands, Venice (M.822), bought by William Baptiste Wordsworth Scoones (1838 or 1839-1906), civil servant [more] (see #00867).
7. Archibald C.
Janey Sevilla Campbell (ca 1846 - d.1923), née Callander, Lady Archibald Campbell [more], was painted by JW as Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell (YMSM 242). It was exhibited at 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884.
8. Spumus Infernalis
Lat., 'Infernal spume' [?].
9. portrait by Rickard
The reference is rather confusing; it is recorded that Boehm did a bust of Louis Gustave Ricard (1823-1873), artist [more], J. E. Boehm, Louis-Gustave Ricard(z329).