Documents associated with: [Exposition], Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1861
Record 1 of 3
System Number: 05190
Date: [July/September 1859][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Matthew White Ridley[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler R90
Document Type: ALS
Ridley my boy
'bon voyage[3]' - here are three letters[4] for you - Ernest Delannoy[5] will help you to find the others - or else Fantin[6] whom you are sure to meet at the Louvre[7]. - Take care of yourself and write to me as soon as you can - You had better direct to Newman St. 70[8]. - I wish [p. 2] if you could you would buy for me and send by post, the piece of music, the Quadrille[9] of "Orphée aux Enfers"[10], taken from the little opérette[11] played at the "Bouffes Parisiens[12]".
Good bye mon cher.
Your affectionate
Jemmie Whistler.
I can't[13] thank you enough old fellow for the jolly way in which you helped me yesterday - I shall certainly come to Paris[14] and see you again this Winter and probably shall not come alone - In the mean time very hard up. - must owe you 5.s. -
Courage[15] and work hard - I fully believe that you will come out far beyond those you leave behind in England - You want no confidence in yourself - you feel color truely [sic] and so you are all right.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [July/September 1859]
Dated from the reference to the Newman Street studio which JW shared with George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier (1834-1896), author and caricaturist [more], from July 1859 through the early summer of 1860, and to M. W. Ridley's imminent departure from England (see Gatty, Valerie, 'Artist's Fruitful Friendship,' Country Life, CLV, no. 4001, 7 March 1974, pp. 507-08).
2. Matthew White Ridley
Matthew White Ridley (1837-1888), painter and etcher [more].
3. bon voyage
Fr., have a good journey. Ridley was about to depart for Paris where, thanks to JW's introduction, he would meet Fantin-Latour.
4. three letters
Untraced.
5. Ernest Delannoy
Ernest Delannoy (d. 1860/1870), art student, JW's travel companion in 1858 [more].
6. Fantin
Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), artist [more]. Fantin and Ridley became close friends, and Fantin painted a portrait of Ridley which was exhibited at the Salon in 1861 (cat. no. 1059, 'Etude d'après nature'; see Fantin-Latour, Mme, Fantin-Latour, Catalogue de l'oeuvre complète, 1849-1904, Paris, 1911, cat. no. 168, H. Fantin-Latour, Portrait du peintre anglais Ridley (FL.168) (z19).
7. Louvre
JW had met Fantin in the Louvre, where they were both copying paintings, a practise which Fantin continued as a useful source of income. For instance, H. Fantin-Latour, Copy after The Wedding at Cana, by Paolo Veronese, 1863 (FL.110) (z18), was painted for Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), surgeon and etcher, JW's brother-in-law [more], who had also been introduced by JW to Fantin (see Fantin-Latour, Mme, Fantin-Latour, Catalogue de l'oeuvre complète, 1849-1904, Paris, 1911, cat. nos. 110 and 164).
8. Newman St. 70
Whistler shared a studio with George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier (1834-1896), author and caricaturist [more], at 70 Newman Street, London, from July 1859 through the early summer of 1860.
9. Quadrille
A square dance popular at the Court of Napoléon I in the early nineteenth century. Double underlined.
10. Orphée aux Enfers
A reference to Orpheus in the Underworld, an operatic work by the Franco-German composer Jacques Offenbach. It was first performed in Paris in 1858, and became immensely popular.
11. opérette
Fr., operetta.
12. Bouffes Parisiens
Opera house in Paris.
13. I can't...
The rest of the text is written using another pen.
14. Paris
JW went to Paris in October 1859.
15. Courage ... all right.
This paragraph was written upside-down to the main text at the top of p. 1.