Documents associated with: Whistler, Helen
Record 17 of 149
System Number: 06692
Date: [25/30 April 1881][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Helen Euphrosyne Whistler[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler W686
Document Type: ALS[3]
BEEFSTEAK CLUB,
KING WILLIAM STREET,
STRAND. W. C.
Dear Nellie -
You must look in this week's "World"[4] -
A little note about Seymour Haden[5] and 'our James'! - most extraordinary - I wonder how it came about ! -
Affectly Yrs
Jim -
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [25/30 April 1881]
Dated from reference to Seymour Haden (see note below).
2. Helen Euphrosyne Whistler
Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917), née Ellen Ionides, JW's sister-in-law [more].
3. ALS
The letter is written at right-angles to the printed address. 'No 12' is written in pencil in another hand at the top of p. 1.
4. World
World, society newspaper; the reference has not been located.
5. Seymour Haden
Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), surgeon and etcher, JW's brother-in-law [more]. This may relate to JW's dispute with the newly formed Painter-Etchers' Society. In the spring of 1881, the Society held an exhibition at the Hanover Gallery. However, when Frank Duveneck (1848-1919), painter, etcher and art teacher [more], submitted three Venice etchings, Haden (who was President of the Society) suspected that they were in fact by JW. Anxious to compare the etchings with those that JW had been printing for the Fine Art Society, Haden, Alphonse Legros and Dr Edward Hamilton (1815 or 1816-1903), doctor of medicine and print collector [more], paid a visit to the Society's gallery. JW was indignant when he heard of the visit, regarding it as an attack on his artistic integrity. A lengthy correspondence ensued that was eventually published by JW(Whistler, James McNeill, The Piker Papers. The Painter-Etchers' Society and Mr. Whistler, London, 1881).