Documents associated with: Cowan, Sophy
Record 9 of 22
System Number: 00710
Date: [28 March 1895][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: John James Cowan[2]
Place: [Edinburgh]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler C211
Document Type: ALS
'28 Mar 1895'
Dear Mr Cowan -
We are at last back in Paris - and my wife happily better[3] though not yet strong - The war is still waging - but I should fancy that by the end of April most of the smoke would have blown over, and the other complications in which one had become much twisted, have straightened themselves out - so that then we might, if, as you think it possible, you could stay for a short while in Paris, complete the picture[4], and let it go on to Scotland -
Did you get the French papers? and see that the Colonel[5] has [p. 2] been offensively entreated, and that he met the offender in the old fashioned way - with no immediate result! -
The law matter[6] is referred to the higher courts - but I fancy will not trouble us for months to come -
My wife sends her affectionate regards to Mrs Cowan[7] - and with my own to yourself
believe me
Always yours sincerely
J. McNeill Whistler
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [28 March 1895]
Dated in an unknown hand at the top of p. 1.
2. John James Cowan
John James Cowan (1846-1936), paper manufacturer and collector [more].
3. my wife happily better
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more] was ill with cervical cancer. She died on 10 May 1896.
4. picture
Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan (YMSM 402). Cowan first sat for JW in Paris in May-June and September 1893. The picture was never finished although he gave JW sixty sittings between 1893 and 1900. See Cowan, John J., From 1846-1932, Edinburgh, 1933, pp. 156-57, 168-73.
5. the Colonel
Probably meaning himself, JW.
6. law matter
Probably a reference to JW's dispute with Sir William Eden (1849-1915), painter and collector [more].
7. Mrs Cowan
Sophy Cowan (b. ca 1850), née Gillespie, wife of J. J. Cowan [more].