Document associated with: Wilsted, Mrs
Record 1 of 1
System Number: 02055
Date: 11 January 1889
Author: Julian Hawthorne[1]
Place: Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler H156
Document Type: ALS
Scotch Plains N. J.
Jan. 11th 1889
My dear Whistler
Your letter[2] of explanation to the Committee of the Hogarth Club was printed in the Herald this morning: and by noon you were the most popular man in America. If you want to get the Portfolio of Foreign Secretary, all you have to do is to mention it to Mr. Harrison[3]. As Horace[4] used to say, "Stott nominis umbra[5]."
I wish you were over here. It was said that you were coming[6] last year. You would have made money: friends you have already.
Do you remember our nights at the Arts Club[7] - you and Helmick[8] and I? I [p. 2] wish, by the way, if you know where Helmick is, you would give me his address. The last I heard of him, two years ago, he was ill: and since then I have been unable to reach him.
Always affectionately yours
Julian Hawthorne.
James MacNeil [sic] Whistler.
[p. 3] 'Julian Hawthorne[9]'.
'Mrs Wilsted[10]
22. Denbigh Terrace
Bayswater -'
[two sketches of faces][11]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Julian Hawthorne
Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934), novelist [more].
2. letter
JW's letter of 4 January 1889 (#02140) published with slight variations in the New York Herald, 10 January 1889 (#13461); see Getscher, Robert H., and Paul G. Marks, James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Two Annotated Bibliographies, New York and London, 1986, B. 55.
3. Mr. Harrison
Possibly Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States, 4 March 1889 to 3 March 1893.
4. Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (fl. 65-68 B.C.), Latin poet.
5. nominis umbra
A pun on Horace's phrase 'stat nominis umbra'. The latin 'nominis umbra' is literally 'called a ghost'. William Stott of Oldham (1857-1900), genre and landscape painter [more], had quarrelled publicly with JW in the Hogarth Club.
6. said that you were coming
JW had vaguely planned a lecture tour, but in fact never returned to the USA.
7. Arts Club
A club for artists and those interested in Art.
8. Helmick
Possibly Howard Helmick (1845-1907), painter and etcher, Professor of History of Art, Georgetown University [more].
9. Julian Hawthorne
Written in pencil, in another hand.
10. Mrs Wilsted
Mrs Wilsted, possibly a friend of Beatrix Whistler. This address is written in a second pencilled hand (possibly that of Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]).
11. [two sketches of faces]
These rough pencil sketches may be by Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].