Documents associated with: Boldini, Giovanni
Record 6 of 30
System Number: 09904
Date: [25 April 1897][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Jonathan Sturges[2]
Place: London
Repository: Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ
Call Number: Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Gen. MSS, CO 140, Box WH, Whistler Folder
Credit Line: Published with permission of Princeton University Library
Document Type: ALS[3]
Jonathan -
You never sent me the famous tonic[4] after all! and so I just crumpled up! and everything had to come to a full stop! -
Both the work and the distinguished West Point worker[5] himself were turned over to the [p. 2] "relieved from duty" department - and being absolutely deserted by you, I happily came over here -
They have had in the Doctor, and it appears that for the last six weeks or more, I have been an insolently ignorant invalid!
Well - now they have got me they want me to "rest" - and go down to the warm south - wherever that may be - for a couple of weeks!
However I daresay I shall get back to London before then - for I cannot go about alone - and this journey itself will have done me quite enough "good" - -
Meanwhile I have been then ill - worked too continuously in that black land with a six months cold - and, after much care and bed, today is the first on which I have ventured to put my nose out of the door -
Of course I have been nowhere - I hear however that there is nothing at the Salons -
I send you some very pretty little regrets at my [p. 3] own absence - from the Figaro - & Journal -
Nice people these - aren't they? - Why ever trouble to send!! No. but I am glad now I didn't send - For, as you said, when I do! . . .
It will be worth while to have the little Peck[6] in among 'em! and the whole array all at the same time - What! - We must lay low like Brer Rab[b]it[7] - and say nothing -
What news? - Where have you been? and with whom have you talked? - How are the Arts in Dover Street[8]? -
Always Jonathan,
[butterfly signature]
110. Rue du Bac.
Are you at Longs[9]?
[press-cuttings[10] from Le Figaro and Le Journal]
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToJonathan Sturges - Esq
The Arts Club -
Dover Street -
Piccadilly -
London
Angleterre[11]
[stamp:] POSTE / [...] / REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE
[postmark:] PARIS-80 / R. DU BAC / 10E 25/ AVRIL / 97
Notes:
1. [25 April 1897]
Dated from the postmark.
2. Jonathan Sturges
Jonathan Sturges (1864-1911), author and translator [more].
3. ALS
Written on deep bordered mourning paper.
4. famous tonic
In a recent letter to Margaret Hall, JW had mentioned that he was suffering from influenza (see #07989). Sturges must have mentioned a medicine to JW that he had promised to send on but didn't.
5. West Point worker
A reference to JW's early career as a naval cadet at West Point Military Academy.
6. Peck
A reference to Portrait of Miss Marion Peck (YMSM 439), begun in March 1895 but never completed.
7. Brer Rab[b]it
Brer Rabbit was a character in the Uncle Remus series of short stories, created by Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), writer.
8. Dover Street
The Hogarth Club, a private men's club for artists and those interested in the arts, was located at 36, Dover Street, London.
9. Longs
This postscript is written at right-angles to the main text in the left-hand margin of p. 1. Long's Hotel, New Bond Street, was a London hotel.
10. press-cuttings
Both are dated 23 April in JW's hand. Le Figaro commented that Giovanni Boldini (1845-1931), portrait painter and etcher [more], was vainly trying to imitate JW. Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926), journalist and writer [more], writing in Le Journal, regretted the absence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), painter [more], and JW, remembering such great works as Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101) and Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137).
11. Angleterre
Double underlined.