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The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Documents associated with: 4th [Exhibition], Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894
Record 8 of 35

System Number: 09697
Date: [March 1894?][1]
Author: Beatrix Whistler[2]
Place: Paris
Recipient: Edward Guthrie Kennedy[3]
Place: [New York]
Repository: New York Public Library
Call Number: E. G. Kennedy I/31a
Credit Line: Edward Guthrie Kennedy Papers / Manuscripts and Archives Division / The New York Public Library / Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Document Type: ALS


110 Rue de Bac

Dear Mr Kennedy,

It was very kind of you to remember your promise to send me the recipe for the lobster - it sounds delicious - but we have not been able to try it yet, for Cook has been ill for some weeks, and we have been [p. 2] having a dreadful time with everything, I wish you could bring us a chinese cook.

Mr Whistler will be very pleased to see you - if you come in April. He has been looking at your little portrait[4], and is very pleased with [it]. He has been and still is very busy - or you would have heard from him. [p. 3] The Champs de Mars[5] opens earlier this year, which means the pictures going in much sooner!!!

We have not much news. There is a rumour that the anarchists are going to blow-up the ["] Bon Marché"[6], but it does not seem to deter the people from going to it - all Paris seems to be there buying new spring hats -!!

Will you please remember us to Mr Mansfield[7], and tell him Mr Whistler is going to write -

'Of course I shall be[8] [p. 4] delighted to see you again my dear Mr Kennedy and in this way you will have answered my objection that "America is so far off[9]" in the most gratifying way! -

I hope, this time, that you will stay a bit - so that we may see more of you -'

With kindest regards from us both -
Very sincerely yours

Beatrix Whistler -

We have had the history of Chicago[10] sent to us - with some other Whistlers[11] in it.


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Notes:

1.  [March 1894?]
Dated from the reference to America and exhibitions (see below). This is among letters of late 1892 in Kennedy's albums (#09696, #09678), but these were made up much later, and this letter does seem to be out of order.

2.  Beatrix Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].

3.  Edward Guthrie Kennedy
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), dealer with H. Wunderlich and Co., New York [more].

4.  portrait
Portrait of E. G. Kennedy (2) (YMSM 404).

5.  Champs de Mars
4th Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894.

6.  Bon Marché"
The famous Paris Department store: it was not blown up, although there were other anarchist outrages at this time.

7.  Mr Mansfield
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), New York lawyer, print collector [more].

8.  Of course I shall be
'Of course ... more of you' was written by JW.

9.  far off
On 8 January and 4 February 1894 JW had remarked on America being 'far off', and Kennedy replied on 20 February that JW could solve this by coming to the States (#09713, #09715 and #07231).

10.  history of Chicago
Not located

11.  Whistlers
John Whistler (d. 1829), father of George Washington Whistler [more], founded Fort Dearborn in 1803.