Documents associated with: [Exposition], Société des XX (Vingt), Brussels, 1884
Record 10 of 13
System Number: 07574
Date: [9/16 May 1884?][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: William Cleverley Alexander[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: British Museum, London
Call Number: Department of Prints and Drawings, 1958-2-8-26
Document Type: ALS
Dear Alexander -
I think that at last I will relieve you of all those strange sketches[3] you have been so good as to take care of for me all this long time - I know I ought to have sent for them long ago - and meant to have done so over & over again - but then forgot & have been so dreadfully hard at work -
However now I am well reminded of them by my Exhibition[4], and so will send for them [p. 2] tomorrow - Will you kindly leave orders with the butler to that effect - in case my man calls when you are away -
How very kind and nice you and Mrs Alexander[5] have been always in all that concerned me and my pictures - I wonder if I ever seem to thank you as I wish! -
Do you follow at all the splendid success of Miss Cissie[6] abroad? - too delightful!
Of course you are all coming to the Show on Saturday - I suppose your tickets will have been sent - -
'Arrangement in Flesh Color & Grey[7]' -
What do you think of my Portrait of Lady Archie Campbell[8] in the Grosvenor?
Always, with kindest regards
J McN Whistler
13. Tite Street. Chelsea.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [9/16 May 1884?]
Dated by reference to private view (see below).
2. William Cleverley Alexander
William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916), banker and patron [more].
3. sketches
These may have been drawings sold at or saved from JW's bankruptcy in 1879.
4. Exhibition
'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884.
5. Mrs Alexander
Rachel Agnes Alexander (b. ca 1837, m. 1861), née Lucas, wife of W. C. Alexander [more].
6. Miss Cissie
Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander (YMSM 129) had been to [Exposition], Société des XX (Vingts), Brussels, 1884, and 102nd exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1884.
7. Arrangement in Flesh Color & Grey
The private view was 17 May 1884. The exhibition, like the pictures, had an abstract title emphasizing colour and harmony, with decor to correspond (see Butterfly for a valance at Dowdeswell's Gallery (M.958)).
8. Portrait of Lady Archie Campbell
Janey Sevilla Campbell (ca 1846 - d.1923), née Callander, Lady Archibald Campbell [more]. Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell (YMSM 242) was shown at 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884.