System Number: 01246
Date: 22 June 1892
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Marcus Bourne Huish[1]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler F178
Document Type: ALdS[2]
33. Rue de Tournon. Paris.
Wednesday. June 22. 1892.
Dear Mr Huish -
Kindly then have cheque made out for me for:
£112- 17- 6-
and let Mr Browne[3] bring it with him as he proposes. I have the proofs here and would like to deliver them personally into his hands - or your own - are you not coming to Paris? - that I may point some matters - most important I think, certainly. -
You had better
Of one fact meanwhile I trust you will have no doubt - That is the necessity of at once asking prices for these proofs that shall keep pace with the prices of my own for my works of the present day -
I must I am afraid reserve much, so very busy am I, for another letter - or better still, until I see you or Mr Browne -
| [p. 2] | proofs | |
| To be printed, there remain of | "The Doorway[4] " | .. 16 |
| " " | "The Palaces " | .. 1. |
| The "Beggars " | ..39 | |
| 56 |
When I have the chance, and am properly set up in my studio here, I will complete the number - - Meanwhile nurse what you have - Sell only two or three proofs at fifteen or sixteen guineas, and begin to ask at once 20 guineas a piece -
I have told everyone that of course that would be the price - -
Be in no hurry - and I will really have given you a fortune - All collectors will be obliged to have these proofs - this is what you & Mr Browne had no idea of - but look at Mr Mansfield[5] -
He said to me directly he saw them - "Of course I will have[6] to have these! - notwithstanding that I have already [the] collection"! -
Also Mr Freer[7] of Detroit and others . . they will all require them -
The Exhibition[8] of the proofs here will have [p. 3] been greatly to the good - -
Also I have printed a proof extra of each for the British Museum - as I announced - and one of most of the very important ones to present to the Librairie Nationale here - and to Spain - & Italy - & Vienna -
All of which will give your "last states" an enormous éclat[9] - and you can dole out, with care, your few proofs at 20, 25 and 30 guineas apiece - as time goes on -
Very faithfully
J McN. Whistler
Let me know if you can by return if I am to expect you or Mr Browne - or if neither of you can come, what you propose -
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Marcus Bourne Huish
Marcus Bourne Huish (1843 - d.1921), barrister, writer and art dealer, Director of the Fine Art Society [more].
2. ALdS
There is a rough draft of this letter at #01245.
3. Mr Browne
Ernest George Brown (1853 or 1854-1915), assistant manager at the Fine Art Society [more]. JW mis-spells his name throughout.
4. The Doorway
The Palaces (K.187), The Doorway (K.188) and The Beggars (K.194), from Mr Whistler's Etchings of Venice, 1880 (the first 'Venice Set') (K. 183-189, 191-195). (excat 5).
5. Mr Mansfield
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), New York lawyer, print collector [more].
6. have
Double underlined.
7. Mr Freer
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more].
8. Exhibition
At the 2nd Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1892.
9. éclat
Fr., splendour, brilliance.