UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 07007
Date: [14 April 1892]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: William McNeill Whistler^[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler W996
Document Type: ALS

33. Rue de Tournon - Paris -

My dear Willie -

I hope you are well and all right - The weather here is so cold and miserable that I feel it must be awful in London - Why don't I hear any thing from you? - Do send us a line -

I shall have news for you soon I suppose about the Salon^[3] of the Champs de Mars -

It is not yet [p. 2] open to the people - but is to be inaugurated by Monsieur Carnot^[4] on Thursday, and I am to be there as one of the Jury to receive him! -

Chapman^[5] you will not be surprised to hear has so far behaved abominably about his pictures - What was that story you remembered about his saying the five pounds was his price - I wish you would tell me -

I hear that Molly Jones^[6] was terribly troubled by the Catalogue^[7]!

Has Sickert^[8] told you about Starr^[9] running away with the wife of the man^[10] who had just given him a commission, and had taken a Studio to give him a chance! -

They were immediately arrested in Paris by relatives - and lady discovered to be mad!! - and Starr - I dont know what happened! - - You had better ask Sickert to come to dinner and hear all about it - -

Love from us both
to both of you

J McN Whistler

This document is protected by copyright.

Notes:

1.  [14 April 1892]
Dated by the reference to the exhibition. It is possible this letter was sent in an envelope with this date, #06714.

2.  William McNeill Whistler
William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), physician, JW's brother [more].

3.  Salon
2nd Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1892, at which JW was awarded a gold medal.

4.  Monsieur Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot (1837-1894), President of France from 1887-1894 [more].

5.  Chapman
Alfred Chapman (1839-1917), engineer and collector [more].

6.  Molly Jones
Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), painter and designer [more], see #11430.

7.  Catalogue
Of Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892. Reprinted in Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 2nd ed., London and New York, 1892, pp. 293-331. In the catalogue, JW quoted and paraphased liberally Burne-Jones' evidence as Ruskin's witness during the trial of Whistler v. Ruskin in 1878: 'I think Mr Whistler had great powers at first, which he has not since justified' (ibid., p. 330). A correspondence followed in the World (Whistler, James McNeill, [Letter to Atlas], The World: A Journal For Men and Women, no. 926, vol. 36, 30 March 1892, p. 22 and (Gentle Art 1892, pp. 332-33).

8.  Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), artist and writer on art [more].

9.  Starr
Sidney Starr (1866 or 1867-1925), painter [more].

10.  wife of the man
Not identified.