Documents associated with: 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884
Record 8 of 14
System Number: 07872
Date: [18/20 June 1884?][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Joseph Edgar Boehm[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 3/21/15
Document Type: ALS
'Whistler[3]'
Above all let me congratulate you upon the honours[4] which I hear, with great pleasure, have come to you - Lieber Spuch![5] - I have seen nothing of you - and you know I always look forward to a word of sympathy from you when I concoct little brown paper pamphlets! - Do tell me what you think of my catalogue[6] this time - the preface I mean - and also what you think of the tiny Show itself -
But above all do write me a line [p. 2] or two and tell me what indeed do you think of the Portrait in the Grosvenor of Lady Archie[7]?
badly they have hung it have n't they - still if you stand in the other gallery, on the farthest side, and look through the door at the picture - then you will see how beautifully she stands away from the infernal vulgar stuff about her on the walls - Do sit down for a moment and tell me what you think of all this - I should be so really pleased to hear you like them -
And now one more matter -
I want to persuade you to look in upon me on Sunday afternoon next - at from 4, till 5 or 6 o'clock that I may show something that I have been doing lately - Do come -
Also again! - I want you to come and breakfast on the Sunday after - the 29th - at 12.30 -
Always my dear Spuch
Yours
Mac
[butterfly signature]
13. Tite Street.
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Notes:
1. [18/20 June 1884?]
According to the almanack, there was a Sunday 'the 29th' in June 1884. This invitation was written shortly before the previous Sunday 22 June 1884.
2. Joseph Edgar Boehm
Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890), sculptor [more].
3. Whistler
Written in right margin, in another hand.
4. honours
Not identified.
5. Lieber Spuch
Ger., 'Dear Spuch' - a nickname.
6. catalogue
Brown paper covered catalogue for 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884, with 'Proposition' written by JW (#09542).
7. Portrait in the Grosvenor of Lady Archie
Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell (YMSM 242), which was shown in 8th Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1884 (cat. no. 192). JW's advice to look at the portrait from a distance through a door suggests he thought of it as an exhibition picture, to be viewed under certain conditions.