UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 03400
Date: [31 July 1895]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: Thomas Robert Way^[2]
Place: London
Repository: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: FGA Whistler 153
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]

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My dear Tom -

This is a very hurried line to consent in a way to what you ask about the Exhibition of the lithographs^[4] - Only I dont want to be placed in the hands [of] Leighton^[5] and those others in any matter -

As to the choice - all right about the ones you mention - and as to the others - send - proof of "La Blanchiseusse" - "La Belle Dame endormie" - The Doctor - The Model reading (nude figure) - The dancing girl - and the Confidences in the Garden^[6] -

A propos - if there is still time, you can have [p. 2] for the title of the edition of Mr Shannon magazine^[7] (in stead of "The Doctor") "Doctor Whistler^[8] - Portrait of my Brother" - I have asked him, and he prefers it -

I shall write soon as I can -
Kindest messages to your Father^[9] -
Always sincerely

J. McN. Whistler.

This document is protected by copyright.

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Envelope:

To
Thomas Way. Junr.
21. Wellington Street
Strand
London
Angleterre
[stamp:] POSTE / 25 / REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE
[postmark:] PARIS - 80 / R. DU BAC / 3E ' 31 / JUIL / 95
[postmark on verso:] LONDON - W. C. / S. M. P. / 9A / AU 1 / 95

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Notes:

1.  [31 July 1895]
Dated from the postmark.

2.  Thomas Robert Way
Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), printer, lithographer and painter [more].

3.  ALS
Published by Spink, Nesta R., The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, gen. eds Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi, Chicago, 1998, vol. 2, p.133, no. 138.

4.  exhibition of lithographs
JW contributed six lithographs to the British section of the 5th Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895: The Little Nude Model, Reading (C.33); The Toilet (C.10); The Tall Bridge (C.12); Limehouse (C.7); The Doctor (C.110); Nocturne (C.8) (cat. nos, 1375-80) under the titles Le Petit Modèle lisant, La Toilette, Le Vieux Pont de Battersea, Le Grand Bateau, Le Docteur, and Le Soir au bord de l'eau. Compared to the French section, the British section was tiny. Historical and reproductive works were exhibited together with original lithographs by contemporary artists; they included two by T. R. Way, Au Bord de la mer and Le Port (cat. nos. 1372-73. Frederic Leighton, Alfred Gilbert and Frederick Goulding had persuaded many artists who had not made lithographs before to make drawings on transfer paper expressly for the centenary show (see #03403). For details of the exhibition, see Centenaire de la lithographie, 1795 1895: Catalogue officiel de l'Exposition, Paris, 1895, reproduced in facsimile in Theodore Reff, ed., Exhibitions of Modern Prints, Modern Art in Paris: Two Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions, no. 26, New York and London, 1981.

5.  Leighton
Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), painter and sculptor [more]. JW entertained a long-standing antipathy toward the British art establishment as represented by the Royal Academy of Art, of which Leighton was President; Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 113.

6.  Confidences in the Garden
The other, unexhibited, lithographs are The Laundress: 'La Blanchisseuse de la Place Dauphine' (C.93); La Belle Dame endormie (C.108); The Dancing Girl (C.29); and Confidences in the Garden (C.100).

7.  Shannon magazine
The Pageant, a new journal edited by Charles Hazlewood Shannon (1863-1937), painter and lithographer [more], and Joseph William Gleeson White (1851-1898), writer on art, first editor of the Studio [more].

8.  Doctor Whistler
The Doctor (C.110) appeared in the first edition in November 1896, under the title 'The Doctor – Portrait of My Brother'.

9.  Father
Thomas Way (1837-1915), lithographic printer [more].