Documents associated with: 3rd Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1879
Record 3 of 18
System Number: 04233
Date: [31 March 1879][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Henry J. Murcott[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler M503
Document Type: ALS
THE WHITE HOUSE.
CHELSEA EMBANKMENT.
Mr Murcott -
Dear Sir -
I want a large frame regilded and should [sic] it might be easily done here - instead of bothering about removing the frame and bringing it back in a van - If you can manage this, please send down a gilder the first thing tomorrow morning - Let him bring very yellow gold - not at all red - [p. 2] and plenty of it - for the frame is at least 7 feet[3] long - Of course he would bring whatever he might want in the way of washes to clean the frame - and perhaps he might have to scrape it -
Also can you knock me up a large frame in 10 days - for the Grosvenor[4]? - no matter how roughly - always the same pattern - if so let your man come tomorrow morning by 10 o'clock - and take the measure - necessary -
Yours truly
J A McN. Whistler
Monday - 31.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [31 March 1879]
Year deduced from address (JW was in the White House from the summer of 1878 until mid-September 1879), and from reference to the Grosvenor Gallery. In 1879, 31 March was a Monday. The submission date for the 3rd Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1879 would have been in the first two weeks of April, and the show opened on 1 May 1879.
2. Henry J. Murcott
Henry John Murcott (b. 1835 or 1836), picture framer, carver and gilder [more].
3. frame is at least 7 feet
The largest portrait needed for the exhibition was Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 190) at 217.8 x 109.5 cms (85 3/4 x 43 1/8").
4. Grosvenor
JW exhibited portraits, seascapes and Nocturnes at the Grosvenor (cat. nos. 54-56, 192-93; respectively YMSM 203, 190, 73, 103, 117). Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder (YMSM 203) measures 192.4 x 92.4 cms (75 3/4 x 36 3/8"), and was probably the picture requiring a new frame.