System Number: 08514
Date: [February/March 1899][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: William Heinemann[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC
Document Type: ALS[3]
Well of course now I will allow you to have discovered even the Palais Royal! - since such Residence alone is fit for the beautiful Principessa Donna[4] to dwell in! -
Your star is "high in the skies" - [p. 2] where all felicitation must seem to you but faint and far away! -
Still you must have my affectionate sympathy and best wishes, for I am delighted my dear friend - and, as I have always said, most charming host! - delighted at your happiness - which somehow or other seems to me the continuation of - or rather perfect sequel to our most brilliant Court held at Whitehall[5]! -
And certainly I feel that I should be with you on your journey - and in all the matter of great ceremony! and I should not readily have forgiven you if any other would have first been asked - But alas! my condition of entanglement is more extraordinary than ever! -
Vanderbilt[6] and complications of portraits "while you wait"! - - - maddening!
But come over and see -
And meanwhile recall me to the kind memory of the most fair and dainty Donna!
and present to her mes homages respectueux[7] and my devotion -
Always affectionately
[butterfly signature]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [February/March 1899]
Dated by reference to Heinemann's marriage, which took place in Rome in March 1899. Another hand has added '[Feb. 1899]' at the top.
2. William Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].
3. ALS
The paper has a deep mourning border.
4. Principessa Donna
It., Princess Lady, meaning Magda Stuart Heinemann (m. 1899), née Sindici, pseudonym 'Kassandra Vivaria', writer [more].
5. Whitehall
Heinemann lived at 4 Whitehall Court in London, and JW stayed with him frequently.
6. Vanderbilt
George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914), collector [more]. Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt (YMSM 481) was commissioned in May 1897, and worked on in London and Paris from 1897-1899; it was finally sent to Vanderbilt after JW's death.
7. mes homages respecteux
Fr., my respectful homage.