Documents associated with: 4th [Exhibition], Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894
Record 6 of 35
System Number: 07457
Date: [1/8 March 1894][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: [a newspaper][2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler X31
Document Type: ALd
Sir -
My attention has been drawn to a paragraph in the papers in which it is stated that the condition upon which I Mr Whistler sends his work to the Exposition Antwerp is that "he be placed nowhere near the Burlington House faction[3]"[.] I am represented as having stipulated, in reply to an official invitation to exhibit in the Exposition International of Antwerp[4], that wor whatever I might send should be removed from all neighborhood of Burlington House [5]-
Kindly allow me to deny this foolish mean & modest exclusiveness - As an inducement to accept the courteous request, I was told that distinguished noted Academicians, men of note had promised their works from London - Whereupon, remembering the hoisting of Carlyle[6] in a Regent St. Gallery under auspices, later on acknowledged as Burlingtonian, I most as the result of my experience, make a condition, that no picture of mine should be placed in the power of Academic Authority to stow aloft - To be hidden at home might be a [matter?] but little but on the continent It is a distinction an acknowledgment - but abroad distinction acknowledgmentsometimes accompanies perception inspection -
and I am sending my pictures[7] to Antwerp that I may be they be seen - among my distinguished confreres - not that they should be carefully successfully secreted by busy [successful?] system -
[p. 2][8]
No 1.[9] Dancing girl.
2 - Steps - Luxembourg
3 - Vitré
4. Lying down
5 - Seated figu[re]
6. Conversation
[sketch of armchair[10]]
Paintings[11]
No 4 - Deep Sea Silv. Viol[e]t
5 - Ship in wave - dark blue & Silver
6. Among the rollers
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [March 1894]
Dated from the reference to Exposition Universelle des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, 1894.
2. [a newspaper]
The letter does not seem to have been published.
3. Burlington House faction
The home of the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly.
4. Exposition International of Antwerp
Exposition Universelle des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, 1894.
5. Burlington House
The home of the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London.
6. Carlyle
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137) had been 'skied', i.e. hung very high on the wall, at Loan Exhibition, Scottish National Portraits, Board of Manufactures, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1884.
7. my pictures
The pictures exhibited included Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate (YMSM 315), Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel (YMSM 169), Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso (YMSM 73) and Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach (YMSM 152). See #00192 and Paintings for exhibition in Antwerp (M.1427).
8. [p. 2]
The page is written in pencil apart from the sketch.
9. No 1....
Probably The Dancing Girl (C.29), The Steps, Luxembourg (C.68), The Marketplace, Vitré (C.62) or Vitré: The Canal (C.63), The Model lying down (K.121), The Draped Figure, Seated (C.72), and Conversation under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens (C.69).
10. sketch of armchair
Armchair (M.1403); an upholstered armless chair; drawn in pen at right angles to the text.
11. Paintings
Violet and Silver: A Deep Sea (YMSM 411); Dark Blue and Silver (YMSM 412), and Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers (YMSM 413). None of these paintings were exhibited at Antwerp, but they were all exhibited at Fair Women, Grafton Galleries, London, 1894 and 4th Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894.