Document associated with: [Exhibition of the work of H. B. Brabazon]
Record 1 of 1
System Number: 08328
Date: [16 December 1892][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: David Croal Thomson[2]
Place: London
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 3
Document Type: ALS[3]
110. Rue du Bac. Paris .
Dear Sir -
The etchings have not yet come - but of course I shall be pleased to see the Artist . Mr Laing[4] -
You never sent us the paragraph in the Globe[5] - If it appeared do post it on here - with date -
You might send also [p. 2] the catalogue of Mr Brabazons[6] work with the preface written by Sargent[7]! -
Of course I will see the circular for the Album[8] - Send on proof -
But also I am waiting to see proof of brown cover - with letters in gold - and revised proofs of all the letter press -
The studio[9] you shall write about [p. 3] yourself, when you come over and see it -
I am not quite ready yet -
You will be pleased to hear that of the pictures for which you were only allowed by the Goupils to offer Mr Cavafy[10] £500, I hav[e] myself sold one - (The Sea piece[11]) for 600. guineas - and a second one (the Balcony[12]) has sold in America, I have heard for £1000 - This leaves still two more!! One of which is the [p. 4] Old Westminster bridge[13], which I fancy will easily command another thousand! -
I am glad you like the lithograph portrait in the book[14] I sent you -
"A Ten pound note" I am afraid is scarcely the offer you expected me to accept from the Art Journal[15] proprietors - is it? -
Very faithfully Yrs
J. McN. Whistler
What is all this I hear about the New English Art Club[16]? - Secession and Ructions of various kinds?
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToD. C. Thomson Esq .
Goupil Galleries .
116, 117. New Bond Street
London -
Angleterre
[stamp]: POSTE REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE / 25
[postmarks x 2:] PARIS A CALAIS / 16 / DEC / 92.
[postmark on verso:] LONDON W / 7 V / DE 17 / 92
Notes:
1. 16 December 1892
Dated from the postmark.
2. David Croal Thomson
David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), art dealer [more]. This is a reply to his letter of 14 Devember 1892, #05763.
3. ALS
'7A' is written in red ink in an unknown hand at top left of p. 1 and the envelope; '50' in pencil at the foot of p. 1, 'XX' in a circle and on the envelope.
4. Mr Laing
Frank Laing (1852-1907), etcher [more].
5. Globe
Reference not identified.
6. Mr Brabazons
Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (1821-1906), painter [more]. His one-man exhibition at the Goupil Gallery opened on 3 December 1892, and was a great success.
7. Sargent
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), artist [more]. He admired Brabazon's work and championed his exhibition.
8. Album
A selection of photographs of paintings, mostly those exhibited in Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892.
9. studio
86 Rue Notre Dame des Champs.
10. Mr Cavafy
Dr John Cavafy (ca 1839-1901), physician and collector, son of G. J. Cavafy [more], had owned The Last of Old Westminster (YMSM 39), Battersea Reach (YMSM 45), Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony (YMSM 56) and Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville (YMSM 64).
11. Sea piece
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), née Stewart, collector [more], bought Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville (YMSM 64) in late November 1892.
12. Balcony
Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony (YMSM 56), sold to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more].
13. Old Westminster bridge
The Last of Old Westminster (YMSM 39).
14. book
The lithograph Stéphane Mallarmé (C.60) was published as frontispiece toMallarmé, Stéphane, Vers et Prose; Morceaux Choisis ... [par] Stéphane Mallarmé, Paris, 1893.
15. Art Journal
Thomson, in his remit as editor of the Art Journal, had suggested JW might publish a lithograph in the journal. He first suggested using Vitré: The Canal (C.63), then Conversation under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens (C.69), and eventually they agreed on Nursemaids: 'Les Bonnes du Luxembourg' (C.81), which was published in the Art Journal, vol. 46, no. 120, December 1894.
16. New English Art Club
JW had ceased exhibiting with the New English Art Club and was not displeased to hear of problems among the members. 'What is ... kinds?' is written in the left margin of p. 1.