Documents associated with: 1st [Exhibition], Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1891
Record 7 of 8
System Number: 08139
Date: [June/July 1891][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Alfred Stevens[2]
Place: [Paris?]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 2/59/2
Document Type: ALS
21, CHEYNE WALK,
CHELSEA.
Je ne puis vous dire mon pauvre cher ami, combien je suis touché par votre lettre[3]! - Non mon ami, de toutes ces affreuses tristesses qui vous sont arrivées, nous ne savions rien, que tout recement, lorsque Montesquiou[4], qui venait a Londres, nous apprit, d'abord, votre grave maladie - et puis votre grand chagrin! -
Pauvre ami!... vous savez [p. 2] combien nos sympathies sont avec vous. -
Ma femme[5] aussi vous envoit bien des remerciements pour le vif plaisir que vous nous avez donné par la seule récompense qui nous est cher - l'appreciation d'un grand artiste! -
Aussi ai je été bien charmé dernièrement de trouver mon nom accouplé au votre, dans un compte rendu où l'on parlait de la "Femme jaune"[6] de Stevens, et de mon portrait[7] qui vous plait tant! -
J'espère venir vous serrer la main d'içi deux jours! - et vous auriez eu de nos nouvelles avant, mais j'ai été si malade avec cette epidemie ridicule mais enervant - L'Influenza[8]! -
Toujours à vous
[butterfly signature]
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
I cannot tell you, my poor dear friend, how touched I am by your letter! - No, my friend, of all these terrible sadnesses which have befallen you, we knew nothing, until very recently, when Montesquiou, who was coming to London, told us, for the first time, of your serious illness - and then your great grief! -
Poor friend! ... you know [p. 2] how much our sympathies are with you.
My wife also sends you many thanks for the keen pleasure you gave us with the only reward which we value - the appreciation of a great artist! -
Also I was very charmed recently to find my name coupled with yours, in an article in which Stevens's "Yellow Woman" was discussed, and my portrait which you like so much! -
I hope to come to see you in two days from now! - and you would have had news of us before now, but I have been so ill with this ridiculous but exhausting epidemic - influenza! -
Yours as ever
[butterfly signature]
Notes:
1. [June/July 1891]
Dated by reference to JW's illness (see below); JW was at this address between 1890 and 1892.
2. Alfred Stevens
Alfred Émile-Léopold Stevens (1823-1906), history and portrait painter [more].
3. votre lettre
Not located.
4. Montesquiou
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921), Symbolist writer and poet, and collector [more].
5. Ma femme
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].
6. "Femme jaune"
A. Stevens, Femme jaune (z245).
7. mon portrait
Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket (YMSM 181), then on show at 1st Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1891.
8. Influenza
JW refers to this illness on several occasions, including letters to Sarasate (#08136), Warren (#09937) and Frewen (#11560).