System Number: 01943
Date: 19 March [1881][1]
Author: Francis Seymour Haden[2]
Place: London
Recipient: Ernest George Brown[3]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler H44
Document Type: ALS
38, HERTFORD STREET,
MAY FAIR.
W.
Dear Sir,
We know all about Mr Frank Duveneck[4] & are delighted to have his Etching
Yours failly
F Seymour Haden
Mar: 19th
[p. 2]
'Haden. S. 19/3/81[5]'
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. 19 March [1881]
Year date inserted on p. 2. in another hand, possibly that of Brown's clerk. The reference to Duveneck's etching also confirms the year date (see note below)
2. Francis Seymour Haden
Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), surgeon and etcher, JW's brother-in-law [more].
3. Ernest George Brown
Ernest George Brown (1853 or 1854-1915), assistant manager at the Fine Art Society [more].
4. Frank Duveneck
Frank Duveneck (1848-1919), painter, etcher and art teacher [more]. This reference to Duveneck relates to an incident between JW and the newly formed Painter-Etcher's Society. In the spring of 1881, the Society held an exhibition at the Hanover Gallery. However, when Duveneck submitted three Venice etchings, Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), surgeon and etcher, JW's brother-in-law [more] (who was President of the Society) suspected that they were in fact by JW. Anxious to compare the etchings with those that JW had been printing for the Fine Art Society, Haden, Alphonse Legros and Hamilton paid a visit to the Society's gallery. JW was indignant when he heard of the visit, regarding it as an attack on his artistic integrity. A lengthy correspondence ensued which was eventually published by JW in a pamphlet (Whistler, James McNeill, The Piker Papers. The Painter-Etchers' Society and Mr. Whistler, London, 1881).
5. Haden. S. 19/3/81
Written in another hand.