System Number: 01017
Date: 20 November 1894
Author: Arthur Jerome Eddy[1]
Place: Chicago
Recipient: JW
Place: [Paris]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler E6
Document Type: ALS
ARTHUR J. EDDY,
618 THE ROOKERY
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
Tuesday Nov. 20th 1894
My dear Mr Whistler -
Your welcome letter[2] came this morning while I was engaged in the interesting task of cutting my little boy's[3] hair - so far no barber has touched him - He already knows your name and is preparing to explain the portrait[4] to visitors.
I cannot tell you how glad I am to hear the picture is [p. 2] finished to your satisfaction - That is news I did not expect.
All the trouble of the posing was recompensed in the delightful hours spent with you - the portrait is just so much clear gain.
When it comes I shall write you what I think and what others say - I find I am already famous in many quarters as the man who bearded the lion in his den and stole a portrait - if everybody only knew [p. 3] how charming the lion really is - but then everybody will in January or February when you come.
We had three days of rough weather - happily I was not sea-sick, but I had most of my meals sent to my state room - the largest on the ship -
That miserable little channel at which I pooh-poohed bowled me over in just one hour and ten minutes [p. 4] - that was an awful trip from Paris to London - I arrived at six thirty, went to bed a[t] Morleys[5] until light, breakfasted, took a cab with all my luggage went to the Army and Navy store, bought some things for Mrs Eddy[6], then to Westminster, then to the Grafton Galleries by mistake thinking that your portrait of Mrs [illegible][7] was there. At the galleries I gave the men in charge a rattling lecture [p. 5] (2)[8] for not having a room full of Whistlers and, by Jove, they humbly apologized and said they wished they had, saying that one Whistler would attract more attention than any half dozen other pictures. - Then to my station at eleven thirty - Tell Mrs Whistler[9] that if my train had been one hour late on starting I would have [p. 6] finished up England [good-brief?] cathedrals and all.
I enclose a clipping that is going the rounds - the last line reminds me of the tail of the butterfly.
While I was not sea sick, I was feverish on the cars from New York to Chicago - it was an acute attack of indigestion - the [reaction?] I suppose - so the dinner was postponed - but my marvellous stories did not suffer any by [p. 7] the delay - I have told everything I can remember so often that I am now about to make up a few strange things about you - unless you come soon you may be met by the militia called out to protect the unwary.
Do I understand that you consider the portrait entirely finished so I may have the pleasure of sending draft for balance?
I sent Mrs Whistler [p. 8] two of our [magazines] - the postscript of the second may interest you - it was written very hurriedly and expresses very imperfectly a thought on art.
With regards to Mrs. Whistler and Miss Phillip[10] [sic], and a great deal of affection for yourself
I am
Yours
Arthur J Eddy
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Arthur Jerome Eddy
Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859-1920), writer and collector [more].
2. letter
Not located.
3. my little boy's
Jerome Orrell Eddy (b. 1891), son of L. C. and A. J. Eddy [more].
4. portrait
Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy (YMSM 425).
5. Morleys
Morley's Hotel, run by George, Ernest and Frederick James Morley, is listed in the 1893 Post Office Directory at 1, 2, and 3 Trafalgar Square, WC.
6. Mrs Eddy
Lucy Crapo Eddy (b. 1863), née Orrell, wife of A. J. Eddy [more].
7. Mrs [illegible]
It is not clear what potrait he might have expected to see, although Brown and Gold: Portrait of Lady Eden (YMSM 408) is a possibility. Eddy's writing is well-nigh illegible — as he comments in another letter sent on the same day, #01018.
8. [p. 5] (2)
Eddy's numbering system has labelled this as the second page, although it is actually the fifth side of text. The printed address letterhead also appears at the top of this page, as on p. 1, and is not re-transcribed here.
9. Mrs Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].
10. Miss Phillip
Ethel Whibley (1861-1920), née Philip, JW's sister-in-law [more].