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The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Documents associated with: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886
Record 20 of 54

System Number: 08644
Date: [March/July 1886?][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Walter Dowdeswell[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
Document Type: ALS


My dear Walter -

Please send[3] the enclosed to May[4] the frame maker -

(I have forgotten his address) -

I say send it because I should like to know that it arrived safely -

The corrected list of proofs[5] has not come even yet [! x 6] -

Your man can come tomorrow at 12 o'clock for more - or will [p. 2] you look in yourself in the morning on your way to town -

I wish you would as you might begin something with the picture business[6] as Secretary -

What about Theobald[7]? - could it be for tomorrow morning? -

[butterfly signature]


This document is protected by copyright.


Notes:

1.  [March/July 1886?]
Dated from reference to etchings.

2.  Walter Dowdeswell
Walter Dowdeswell (1858-1929), art dealer [more].

3.  send
Double underlined.

4.  May
Probably Charles Mitchell May, carver and gilder, at 19 St Anne's Court, Soho [more].

5.  proofs
JW was printing A Set of twenty-six etchings of Venice, 1886 (the second 'Venice set') (K.196-216, 233-237). (excat 6), for Dowdeswell's. The first proofs were delivered on 2 April 1886 (see receipt, #00863). The last plates were cancelled in July 1887.

6.  picture business
This may possibly relate to JW's recent exhibition, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886. On 3 July 1886, Dowdeswell wrote sending the 'drawings and picture[s] - 68 in all - having retained 12 as we have two or three people still about these, and we expect them to come at any time.' See W. Dowdeswell to JW, #00865.

7.  Theobald
Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934), barrister and collector [more]. On 1 July 1885, Theobald bought twenty-nine drawings (see Dowdeswell list, #00867). Theobald told Pennell that he purchased 'some thirty or forty drawings or pastels through the Dowdeswells.' See, for example, Studies for the Mummy Cloth & Notes for Dress (M.568). This reference may relate to JW's apparent wish to borrow some of the works to go with him on a tour of America (see JW to W. Dowdeswell, #08616), planned for about September 1886 (see H. Lenoir to R. D'Oyly Carte, #00927).