UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 00343
Date: [October/November 1873?]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Joseph Edgar Boehm^[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler B119
Document Type: ALS

'125'

Dear Böehm -

Will you come round for half an hour this afternoon when dark - or would it be impossible today -

I also want much to laugh for I have been long without it -

Five weeks on my back and altogether about eight ill! - and for me who have not the habit of thinking helplessly and doing nothing! - George Chapman^[3] has written to say that he is to call this afternoon so that [p. 2] we shall make a circle! -

I received your kind note^[4] the other day and sent you a card^[5] to say how glad I should be to see you last Sunday - I sometimes fancy that the servant did not deliver it - I mean my servant - did you get it -

I also supposed you were away all this time - at any rate felt certain you could not know of my stupid illness or one of us would have looked the other up -

[p. 3] It is possible I may go out tomorrow for the Doctor is to send me away probably the day after -

Ever yours

J A M Whistler -

A little damaged in the wings but still [butterfly signature]!

[p. 4]

[caricature^[6] of male head with beard]

This document is protected by copyright.

Notes:

1.  [October/November 1873?]
JW was ill for five weeks with 'Rheumatic fever and Bronchitis combined' in the autumn of 1873 (A. M. Whistler to M. E. Eastwick, 8 September 1874, #11843). On 11 November 1873 G. P. Boyce reported that he was still in bed but 'getting better' (Boyce, George, The Diaries of George Price Boyce, Norwich, 1980, p. 58).

2.  Joseph Edgar Boehm
Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890), sculptor [more].

3.  George Chapman
George R. Chapman (b. 1834), artist [more].

4.  note
Not located.

5.  card
Not located.

6.  caricature drawing
Not by JW but possibly by Boehm.