UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 08143
Date: [8 August/September 1887]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Alfred Stevens^[2]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 2/59/5
Document Type: ALS

BEEFSTEAK CLUB,
KING WILLIAM STREET,
STRAND, W.C.
London

'Whistler^[3]'

Ecrivez moi içi^[4]

Mon tres cher ami -

Voila longtemps que je vous dois des excuses et des poignées de main, -

Mais continuellement je me proposais de vous trouver sur les Boulevards - et de vous expliquer en deux mots où en sont les choses - Mais çela m'a été impossible - et maintenant [p. 2] il me faut finir par où j'aurai du commencer - en vous écrivant -

J'ai d'abord à vous faire savoir que la Societé qui a eu l'honneur de vous recevoir comme membre^[5], a été constitué ^{par Sa Majesté} "La Société Royale des Artistes Britanique^[6]"! - de sorte que sur l'envelope qui contient ce petit mot j'ajoute à votre nom ilustre, les initiales R. B. A.! -

Voila mon cher où nous en sommes aujord'hui! - et l'Academie^[7] en est tout interloquée!

Maintenant vous allez nous envoyer deux ou trois de ces petites toiles exquises que j'ai vu a votre derniere exposition chez Petit ^[8]-

Faites ceçi mon cher Stevens - et preparez les pour la fin de ce mois-ci - Le jour pour l'envoi est fixé pour le 1er lundi du mois prochain - du reste on vous enverra la date officialement -

Enfin quoi - nous triomphons! - tout ce que je vous faisais entrevoir à ma dernière visite à Paris, a eu lieu! - [p. 3] Les details je vous raconterai à notre prochaine rencontre -

Tout ceçi doit être, je le sens bien, d'un drole de francais! - il y a si longtemps depuis que je m'enterre içi, qu'il m'est impossible de me defaire des expressions anglaises - et je sais bien que je ne reussis que gauchement à vous faire entendre toute ma joie à vous savoir parmis nous pour toujours! -

En attendant mon cher ami, tout à vous

J. McN. Whistler -

This document is protected by copyright.

Translation:

Write to me here

My very dear friend -

I should have written my apologies and shaken your hand a long time ago,-

But I continually planned to see you on the Boulevards - and to explain in a few words what is happening - But it was impossible for me - and now [p. 2] I must finish where I should have started - by writing to you -

I should first tell you that the Society which had the honour to accept you as a member, has been constituted by Her Majesty "The Royal Society of British Artists"! so that I have added the initials R. B. A. to your illustrious name on the envelope containing this short note!

That my dear friend Stevens is the situation today - and the Academy is quite taken aback!

Now you are going to send us two or three of those exquisite little canvasses which I saw at your last exhibition at Petit's -

Do this, my dear Stevens - and have them ready for the end of this month - the deadline is fixed for the 1st Monday of next month - besides they will send you the date officially.-

Lastly - we have triumphed! - everything I foretold to you on my last visit to Paris, has happened! [p. 3] I will tell you the details when I next meet you -

All this, I know, must be in strange French! - it is so long since I interred myself here, that it is impossible to rid myself of English expressions - and I well know that I am only very clumsily succeeding in making you understand all my joy at knowing that you are with us for always! -

Meanwhile, my dear friend, yours ever

J McN. Whistler -

Notes:

1.  [8 August/September 1887]
Dated by reference to RBA (see below).

2.  Alfred Stevens
Alfred Émile-Léopold Stevens (1823-1906), history and portrait painter [more].

3.  Whistler
Written in pencil in another hand.

4.  Ecrivez moi ici
Written at top left of page, with line connecting to the printed address.

5.  vous recevoir comme membre
JW had proposed Stevens as a member of the SBA.

6.  La Societe Royale des Artistes Britannique
The Queen admired 'the beautiful and artistic illumination of the Album in which the address was enclosed' and commanded 'that the Society should be called Royal.' JW announced this to the Society on 10 August 1887 (JW, 9 August 1900, quoted by Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, pp.65-7: RBA Minutes).

7.  l'Academie
JW proposed that now the Society was Royal its members should withdraw from membership of other Societies, including the RA, but the proposal was rejected (1 November 1887, proposed by JW, seconded by T. Roussel, RBA Minutes; see also the Minutes of 7 May 1888).

8.  exposition chez Petit
JW had exhibited a large group of works at Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887. Responding to JW's request, Stevens sent to the RBA a number of simple atmospheric studies, totally unlike the sophisticated genre studies of women on which his reputation was based. In addition he sent a portrait, which was described by the St James Gazette on 30 November 1887, as 'the sketch of a baby, from M. Stevens unregenerate days - hanging there among the notes and nocturnes by which he enrols himself among the followers of the new Velasquez.'