Documents associated with: 104th exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1886
Record 13 of 13
System Number: 05374
Date: 16 February [1888][1]
Author: Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues[2]
Place: Berlin
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler S18
Document Type: ALS
Berlin
16 février
Cher ami -
Voilà trois mois que je suis en voyage, mon fameux atelier ne me voit presque jamais, j'ai dû abandonner mon omelette[3] pour courir les grandes routes. Je ne serai de retour à Paris que vers le 20 mars. Vous devriez venir passer quelque temps à Paris pendant que je n'y suis pas, et vous installer dans votre splendide Création, car enfin, il faut que vous la connaissiez! - Le fameux Charles est toujours là, il vous soignera, et vous pourrez prendre votre bain tous les matins. Ma baignoire peut contenir toute une famille.
Je serai charmé de vous revoir à Londres, et je souhaite le plus grand succès à mon autre moi-même[4] [p. 2] que vous éxposerez [sic] sans doute à la Royal Academy? ... Viva Don Cristo!
Les bougies ne tiennent pas dans vos ravissantes appliques, ce qui n'empêche qu'elles sont collées le long des murailles comme des merveilles artistiques.
très préssé [sic], tout à vous
Fiarchini[5] Junior,
allias Sarasate
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
My dear friend -
I have now been travelling for three months, I am hardly ever at my famous studio, I have had to abandon my omelette in favour of the high roads. I shall not be back in Paris until about March 20th. You must come and spend some time in Paris while I am not there, and stay in your splendid Creation, because after all, you should know it better! - The famous Charles is still there, he will look after you, and you can have your bath every morning. My bath will hold a whole family.
I will be delighted to see you again in London, and I wish the greatest success to my other self [p. 2] which you will no doubt exhibit at the Royal Academy? … Long live Don Cristo!
The candles do not stand upright in your ravishing wall-lamps, which has not prevented them from hanging along the walls like artistic marvels.
In great haste, yours
Fiarchini Junior
alias Sarasate
Notes:
1. 16 February [1888]
Year date from reference to the decorative scheme and YMSM 315.
2. Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues
Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues (1844-1908), violinist [more].
3. omelette
JW had recently designed a music room in pink, white and yellow for Sarasate's Paris apartment; this is presumably what is meant by Sarasate's light-hearted reference to his 'omelette'. The drawings for it have not survived. See Dowdeswell, Walter, 'Whistler,' The Art Journal, new series, vol. 50, no. 586, April 1887, pp. 97-103, p. 98 and Bendix, Deanna Marohn, Diabolical Designs: Paintings, Interiors, and Exhibitions of James McNeill Whistler, Washington and London, 1995, pp. 172-73.
4. mon autre moi-même
Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate (YMSM 315). JW did not exhibit a painting at the Royal Academy after the controversial showing of Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101) in 1872. However, he did send YMSM 315 to the 104th exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1886 (cat. no. 2450).
5. Fiarchini
An allusive term used by JW around this time indicating close friendship.