Documents associated with: Balestier, Wolcott
Record 7 of 17
System Number: 13474
Date: [20 June/July 1890][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London?]
Recipient: Alfred Stevens[2]
Place: [Paris?]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler L182b
Document Type: ALd
c'est une leçon[3] desagreable inesperée que je recois [sic] - tout m'apprenant combien il est superflu de prendre les moyens d'autrui pour se rendre ridicule -
Maintenant comme morale resultat je me trouve mal içi et a l'etranger d'u du même coup aimable! - l'amabilité est l'ennui des gens aimables!
Mon cher Stevens mes amitiés meilleurs sentiments à tout le monde - et pour vous toujours mon amitié -
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Translation:
the lesson I have had has been unpleasant unlooked-for - teaching me how unnecessary it is to use other people's resources to cover oneself in ridicule
Now as a moral result I am ill-placed both here and abroad from the same pleasant blow - aimiability is the downfall of pleasant people!
My dear Stevens my warm regards kind greetings to everybody - and my warm regards to you as always
Notes:
1. [20 June/July 1890]
This draft letter is written on the reverse of a letter from Wolcott Balestier to JW dated 19 June 1890 (#02648).
2. Alfred Stevens
Alfred Émile-Léopold Stevens (1823-1906), history and portrait painter [more]. He may have been in Paris or Brussels.
3. leçon
This may refer to the publication of Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, ed. Sheridan Ford, Paris, 1890, which is referred to in other letters to Stevens at this period (#05580, #08144).