UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Documents associated with: Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters, Amsterdam, 1889
Record 11 of 18

System Number: 00624
Date: 14 October 1889
Author: Théodore Child[1]
Place: Paris
Recipient: JW
Place: [Amsterdam]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler C125
Document Type: ALS


99 Av. de Villiers

14 Oct. 1889

Dear Mr Whistler

I have received your very kind note and feel much honored by your appreciation of the Harper article[2]. What I said about your creations is precisely what I feel, and it is, as you may imagine, no small satisfaction for me to find that you approve. I will convey your compliments to the French engravers[3] who will, I am sure, be delighted.

I shall be very curious to see your etchings of Amsterdam[4], [p. 2] the other Venice. I have the most delicious [vapory?] souvenirs of the place.

I had not seen the newspaper cuttings which you inclosed [sic] in your letter. The reading of ephemeral sheets tends to trouble one's serenity and I do as little of it as possible. I have not heard anything about the military man[5]: since my return I have not yet seen any Anglo-Saxons. I would quote a bit of your letter with pleasure only I have already annihilated the military men in a New York paper and cannot now with good grace toss his corpse on my critical horns. He hates me like sin it appears. Moi je ne le connais pas.[6]

I congratulate you on your Amsterdam gold medal[7]. Faudrait la laver à Paris n'est-ce pas?[8]

Yours faithfully

Theodore Child


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Notes:

1.  Théodore Child
Theodore Child (1846-1892), journalist and art critic [more].

2.  Harper article
Child, Theodore, 'American Artists at the Paris Exhibition,' Harpers New Monthly Magazine, vol. 79, no. 472, September 1889, pp. 489-521.

3.  French engravers
i.e. Fréderic Florian (b. 1858), alias 'Rognon', wood engraver [more].

4.  etchings of Amsterdam
'Holland set', 1889 (K.402-416) (excat 10).

5.  the military man
Gen. Rush Christopher Hawkins (1831-1920), U. S. commissioner for Fine Art at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889 [more]; see #11426.

6.  Moi je ne le connais pas.
Fr., I do not know him.

7.  gold medal
Awarded at Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters, Amsterdam, 1889 (see #00160).

8.  Faudrait la laver à Paris n'est-ce pas?
Fr., it should be hung out [lit. 'washed'] in Paris, should it not?