Documents associated with: 81st exhibition, Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1863
Record 2 of 16
System Number: 09189
Date: [19 December 1862][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: George Aloysius Lucas[2]
Place: Paris
Repository: Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Call Number: 08 folder, W-Lucas file
Document Type: ALS[3]
7A Queen's Road West
Chelsea,
London
Dear Lucas -
Many thanks - I was very badly treated by the Juge de paix[4]! - only gave the washerwoman half the total to be sure, but had to pay everyone else tremendously! - Juge de paix was a beast and I told him so - (not quite) - I didn't leave Paris at once as I had expected but sent Jo[5] over, and went myself to the Hotel du Louvre where Winans[6] had asked [me] to spend a few days with them - but I never could get up to the Arc de Triomphe again, as they dined always at twilight and went to the play immediately after - Since my return to London I have had a threatened rheumatism and consequently kept my bed until today so that I have not yet seen George[7], but hope to this afternoon - My Westminster Bridge[8] picture came while I was in Paris, and Martinet[9] has it - Go and see it, you will like it I am sure -
Enclosed I send a bill for two hundred and eighty francs: (280. francs) payable - at sight at Messrs. Mayer, Spielmann Co., 26 Rue Vivienne, Paris - Please acknowledge receipt of same by return - With this sum you can pay the framemaker, and have the frames[10] packed and sent by petite vitesse[11] to my address as above - at once - for all this trouble my dear Lucas I scarcely know how to thank you -
Will you send me his receipted bills, one for each frame seperately [sic] in your answer -
Encore une fois mille remerciments[12] and believe me
Ever yours
Jim Whistler
I shall probably run over to Paris again in March to see you, and carry the White Girl[13] to the Salon -
ainsi Au Revoir
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [19 December 1862]
Dated from Lucas's diary, 20 December 1862, 'Rec'd letter from Whistler enclosing 280 fs for payment of his frames.' Randall, Lillian, ed., George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris, 1857-1909, Princeton, 1979, p. 146.
2. George Aloysius Lucas
George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909), art dealer in Paris [more]; see his reply to this letter, #02653.
3. ALS
Published in Mahey, John A., 'The Letters of James McNeill Whistler to George A. Lucas,' Art Bulletin, XLIX, September 1967, pp. 247-57, no. IV.
4. Juge de paix
Fr., magistrate. JW seems to have been taken to court for not paying his laundress.
5. Jo
Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843), JW's model and mistress [more].
6. Winans
Thomas De Kay Winans (1820-1878), locomotive engineer and collector [more].
7. George
George William Whistler (1822-1869), engineer, JW's half-brother [more].
8. Westminster Bridge
The Last of Old Westminster (YMSM 39), which was shown at [Exposition], Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1862.
9. Martinet
The Galérie Martinet in Paris, where JW first exhibited the Thames etchings.
10. frames
A reference to the frames of two works; see Sea Piece (YMSM 43) and Subject Unknown (YMSM 42).
11. petite vitesse
Fr., slow goods service.
12. Encore...remerciments
Fr., once again, many thanks.
13. White Girl
Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl (YMSM 38), rejected at the Salon, but hung in Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture, refusés par le Jury de 1863, et exposés, par décision de S. M. l'Empereur, au salon annexe, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1863.