Documents associated with: Wyke, Charles
Record 4 of 4
System Number: 08344
Date: [4 April 1892][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: David Croal Thomson[2]
Place: London
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 3
Document Type: ALS[3]
33. Rue de Tournon. Paris.
Monday -
Dear Sir -
I have only as yet heard, by telegram[4], that everything was perfect yesterday - Therefore I have at once to thank you for all your kind attentions - and tomorrow hope to be able to write you fully -
Potter[5] - Seems to have been typically British! You must give me full details - They will be amusing. -
Copyright - My belief has always been that the copyright of any work of Art, belongs always to the Artist, even after the sale of the work itself, until he sells it to the buyer with the work - in which case the buyer would have stipulated for such purchase of copy right and hold the written receipt - However I can write to my lawyers and have the exact law - Not that I propose that you dont know all about it - only you dont quite say. - The business civilities of the Goupil house towards those whose pictures hang in the Galleries I dont in any way propose to interfere with - while [three illegible words] naturally they would scarcely apply to my own relations with dull and impertinent people happening to possess my works, [several illegible words] - However - I offered you my idea of the work that might perhaps be done - and in which I think shall wait of course to hear all that you with your own good sense and experience shall have to say about it - Only if I judging by the monstrous tone of Messrs Lethard[6] & Potter - I should think that the wisest would be, as usual, to take John Bull by the horns - and, in this case, photograph first, and fight afterwards! -
People - I was disappointed in that you did not tell me how the Friday went off? - Do let me [p. 2] hear all these things - They interest me immensely - Saturday you say was splendid!
I have had a note from Sir Charles Wyke[7], thanking for the season ticket, and saying that he has been twice - but that each time the Galleries were so crowded he would have to go again to see the pictures! -
Academicians . ? ? -
Ruskin[8] . Did you send him by the way a Card? - You certainly ought to post him a season ticket at once! - Anything droll to tell me about "those others"?
Mr Sickert[9]. Have you seen him? and have you told him to write to me? .
Lithographs[10]. I don't think you told whether you received those I lately sent through the house here? -
Portraits. Anything new? -
Very truly Yours
J. McN. Whistler
[date stamp:] GOUPIL AND COMPANY
-5 APR. 92
SUCCESSORS / BOUSSOD VALADON & CO.
Way[11] I have written a line à propos of next edition - which will contain the two letters from the World[12] - and I have also had a note from young Mr. Way[13] saying that there is no further misunderstanding of any kind - so that's all right -
You might let it get out & into the papers that this Fourth Edition, contains the letter on the matter of "Mr Jones R. A.[14]" - and the Final Acknowledgement! -
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToD. C. Thomson. Esq.
The Goupil Galleries
New Bond Street -
London -
Angleterre -
[stamp:] POSTE / REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE / 25
[stamp:] POSTE / REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE / 15
[postmarks x 3:] PARIS - 6 R. DE VAUGIRARD / E11 22 / AVRIL / 92
[postmark on verso:] PARIS A CALAIS / 22 AVRIL / 92 / [rest illegible]
Notes:
1. [4 April 1892]
Dated from the postmark.
2. David Croal Thomson
David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), art dealer [more]. He had recently organised JW's exhibition, Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892.
3. ALS
'23B' was written at the top of p. 1 in red ink, '23' at the top left and '24' at the lower right, on the envelope, in different hands.
4. telegram
B. Whistler to JW, #06614.
5. Potter
John Charles Potter (1854-1920), wallpaper manufacturer and collector [more].
6. Lethard
James Leathart (1820-1895), collector [more]. They had been displeased by JW's high-handed decisions on the cleaning, varnishing and reframing of their pictures.
7. Sir Charles Wyke
Sir Charles Lennox Wyke (1815-1897), KCB, diplomat [more].
8. Ruskin
John Ruskin (1819-1900), critic, social reformer and artist [more].
9. Mr Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), artist and writer on art [more].
10. Lithographs
Not identified.
11. Way
Thomas Way (1837-1915), lithographic printer [more].
12. letters from the World
JW planned to publish them in the catalogue of the exhibition. They had recently been published in the World: World, 23 March 1892, p. 19, and Whistler, James McNeill, [Letter to Atlas], The World: A Journal For Men and Women, no. 926, vol. 36, 30 March 1892, p. 22. The letters concerned Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), painter and designer [more]. JW had sprinkled the catalogue with extracts from Burne-Jones's evidence as Ruskin's witness during the trial of Whistler v Ruskin, much to Burne-Jones's anguish. See also #11430 and Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 2nd ed., London and New York, 1892, pp. 332-34.
13. Mr. Way
Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), printer, lithographer and painter [more].
14. Mr Jones R. A.
Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), painter and designer [more].