Documents associated with: Special Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists at Home and in Europe, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1881-1882
Record 4 of 4
System Number: 05049
Date: 30 March 1884
Author: Erastus Brainerd[1]
Place: Philadelphia
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler P689
Document Type: ALS
THE PHILADELPHIA[2] PRESS.
THE PRESS COMPANY, (LIMITED,) PROPRIETORS.
SEVENTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS.
EDITORIAL ROOMS.
PHILADELPHIA,
Mar 30 1884
Dear Sir:
I take the liberty of enclosing to you a notice of your exquisite etchings.[3] I do so in order to have the opportunity of making an explanation; because I know such notices are often brought to an artist's attention, from which the writer would gladly keep them. I wish to say that my notice was written under pressure between two and three in the morning, when I was suffering from such a beastly cold that the words danced as I wrote.
Such a personal matter is of no interest to you, but I feel that I have so feebly expressed in the notice my high appreciation of your work that, if you will allow me, I wish to say how much more earnest and appropriate a notice I would have written if I had had the wit to express it. I say this because I am not a professional art critic, although I am a newspaper writer, and
Yours very sincerely
Erastus Brainerd
Mr Whistler.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Erastus Brainerd
Erastus Brainerd (1855-1922), journalist and writer on art [more].
2. PHILADELPHIA
Engraved heading incorporating machinery, American eagle, and motto 'VIRTUS LIBERTAS [...]'.
3. notice of your exquisite etchings.
The notice has not been identified. Mr Whistler's Etchings of Venice, 1880 (the first 'Venice Set') (K. 183-189, 191-195). (excat 5) had been exhibited in Special Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists at Home and in Europe, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1881-1882.