Documents associated with: Williams, Seth
Record 6 of 10
System Number: 09214
Date: 7 April 1857
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Alfred Emilien, Comte de Nieuwerkerke[1]
Place: [Paris]
Repository: Archives du Palais du Louvre, Paris
Call Number: 3338 sd P30 Whistler
Document Type: ALS
Rue Poupée[2] 11.
'fait d'avril'[3]
Monsieur le Directeur
Veuillez avoir la bonté de m'accorder la permission de copier le tableau de M. Schnetz[4] au Luxembourg, representant un Prisonier [sic] faisant ses Adieux à sa famille. -
Agréez Monsieur le Directeur l'assurance la haute considération, avec laquelle
j'ai l'honneur d'être votre plus humble et plus obeissant Serviteur
J. Whistler
'carte no. 3338' '[11 rue P?]'[5]
Mardi. Avr. 7.
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
11 Rue Poupee
'granted April'
Dear Sir
Would you have the goodness to grant me permission to copy the picture by Mr Schnetz at the Luxembourg, representing a Prisoner making his farewells to his family -
Please accept, Sir, my respectful greetings, with which
I have the honour to be your most humble and obedient Servant
J Whistler
'card no. 3338' '[11 Rue P?]'
Notes:
1. Alfred Emilien, Comte de Nieuwerkerke
Alfred Emilien O'Hara (1811-1892), Comte de Nieuwerkerke, sculptor, Directeur-General des Musées [more].
2. Poupée
JW was living in the rue Poupée for a short period in early 1857. This street, also known as the rue Pompée, was near the Boulevard Saint-Michel, according to J. Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris.
3. 'fait d'avril'
Written in a different hand.
4. Schnetz
Jean-Victor Schnetz (1787-1870), painter [more], was director of the Ecole de Rome (1840); his painting Les adieux du consul Boëthus à sa famille (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse) was commissioned as a decoration for the rooms of the Conseil d'Etat in the Louvre and shown at the Salon of 1827. It was in the Musée du Luxembourg from 1836, was transferred to the Louvre in 1878 and was deposited at Toulouse in 1886. For JW's copy of the painting, see Copy after Schnetz's 'Les Adieux du consul Boëtus à sa famille' (YMSM 13). JW told Pennell on 6 August 1900 that the copy he made (whereabouts unknown) was part of a commission from Captain Williams of Stonington, Connecticut, "to copy as many pictures as I chose for twenty-five dollars a piece, and I copied a picture of a woman holding up a child toward a barred window and a man looking through the bars" (Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 17).
5. 'carte no. 3338' '[11 rue P?]'
Written in a second different hand.