System Number: 01526
Date: 6 February 1902
Author: Charles Lang Freer[1]
Place: Detroit
Recipient: JW
Place: [Bath][2]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler F458
Document Type: ALS[3]
Detroit, Michigan
33 FERRY AVENUE
February 6th,
1902.
Dear Mr Whistler:-
Ever since the arrival of "The Thames in Ice"[4], and the "Portrait of Mrs Whibley"[5] I have been wanting to write to you and tell you how delighted I am to be priveleged [sic] to [p. 2] add two such important examples of your work to my little group -
I shall make no attempt to tell you how delightfully I am impressed by them, but I do want you to know that I appreciate most highly your goodness in putting me in [p. 3] communication with Mr Cowan[6] and thus enabling me to obtain the pictures - I also desire to thank you most heartily for your kindness in connection with the consular invoices -
From a note recently received from Mr Marchant[7] I am sorry to learn that [p. 4] you are not enjoying good health - I trust that the disturbance is was of a fleeting nature, that it has left you ere this, and that you are entirely well by this time -
Do take the very best care of yourself -
With every good wish,
Faithfully yours,
Charles L Freer
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more].
2. [Bath]
In the winter of 1902, in search of health, JW stayed at the English spa town of Bath for some weeks.
3. ALS
Published in Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington and London, 1995, p. 154, no. 57.
4. "The Thames in Ice"
The Thames in Ice (YMSM 36).
5. "Portrait of Mrs Whibley"
Rose and Silver: Portrait of Mrs Whibley (M.1415).
6. Mr Cowan
John James Cowan (1846-1936), paper manufacturer and collector [more]. Freer had just purchased the two pictures for £2000 and £400 apiece (R. Birnie Philip to C. L. Freer, #04819); see also Freer to R. Birnie Philip, #01525.
7. Mr Marchant
William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), art dealer [more]. The note from Marchant is unidentified.