Documents associated with: Hardy-Alan, P.
Record 5 of 14
System Number: 09455
Date: [31 May/June 1863][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys[2]
Place: [London?]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler LB 16/24
Document Type: TLc[3]
7 Lindsay Row
Old Chelsea
Sunday
Dear Sandys -
You have done the proper thing thoroughly and I only wish I could accept your jolly invitation and do the yachting and eat the dinner which I have no doubt will be stunning -
but it's of no use - I must stick to a couple of pictures [,] commissions[4]! for I am just about cleaned out - and tin will be forked over on their completion -
Your "Vivien[5]" is splendid in tone and colour especially the head - of course it is badly hung -
One of my pictures[6] [is] refused and one put on the floor - You will perhaps be pleased to hear that the "White Girl[7]" is a real success in Paris - and already I have had a letter[8] to know if it may be possessed for gold! -
Adieu mon cher - Remember me to Tom Geckyl[9] -
Jo[10] says many things aimables[11] - and if ever I lent her to anyone to paint, it should certainly be to you mon ami[12] -
Adieu again - and success to the trip -
Ever yours,
J. Whistler
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [31 May/June 1863]
Dated from reference to 'Sunday', and to the success of Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl (YMSM 38) (see below).
2. Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys
Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904), portrait painter and designer [more].
3. TLc
This is a typed letter copy; the original has not been traced. At the foot of the page a typed note by the transcriber reads: '(To Frederick Sandys, the painter)'.
4. commissions
Possibly Battersea Reach (YMSM 45), which was sold to George John Cavafy (1805-1891), merchant, partner in G. J. Cavafy and Company [more], for £30, and/or Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks (YMSM 47), sold to Ernest Gambart (1814-1902), of Ernest Gambart and Co., wholesale printsellers [more], in December 1863.
5. Vivien
F. Sandys, Vivien (z20) was exhibited at the 95th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy, London, 1863 (cat. no. 707). It probably shows the model Keomi, whom Sandys shared with Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), artist and poet [more]. It appears that Sandys was on the lookout for models, and when his friends found an acceptable model, he sometimes borrowed them. See O'Looney, Betty, Frederick Sandys 1829-1904, exhibition catalogue, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 1974, (cat. no. 61).
6. pictures
In 1863 JW submitted The Last of Old Westminster (YMSM 39) to the Royal Academy. It was accepted but badly hung. The rejected painting has not been identified.
7. White Girl
Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl (YMSM 38), was rejected by the Salon but later hung in the Salon des Refusés (Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture, refusés par le Jury de 1863, et exposés, par décision de S. M. l'Empereur, au salon annexe, Palais des Champs Elysées, Paris, 1863, cat. no. 596), which opened on 15 May 1863.
8. letter
See the letter from Hardy-Alan to JW, #08044.
9. Tom Geckyl
Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881), architectural designer [more].
10. Jo
Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843), JW's model and mistress [more], who modelled for Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl (YMSM 38). The implication of this comment might be that Sandys had asked if he could paint her.
11. aimables
Fr., amiable, friendly.
12. mon ami
Fr., my friend.