System Number: 02448
Date: [4 July 1896][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Louise Kinsella[2]
Place: London
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler K31
Document Type: ALS[3]
'July 4th 1896.'
St. Judes Cottage - Heath End -
Hampstead -
Dear Miss Kinsella -
We had better say tuesday then at the morning hour -
Voiçi l'affaire[4] - or rather no - I think I will keep it until I see you - so if you stay away I shall think you not very much interested! -
Tomorrow wont do - for I [p. 2] could not be ready with what I want for the picture[5] yet - though I hope to manage by tuesday -
For this much I will say - the change is not at all in you - Indeed I am so very much pleased with yourself in the picture that today I showed the portrait to Sargent[6]! - He came to see me - and you know I dont show my things - but I couldn't resist it! - He was I really believe very much struck - He said it is very beautiful - and I must say I admired it myself quite recklessly for once - Certainly the pink lady stood up magnificently and looked back at us with the utmost calm and assurance - No - you are going on to the finish apparently with the greatest possible ease - very nearly approaching that finish as it is - and if I can only get what I want the painting promises to be remarkable -
In short the combination, as I now have thought it out, is one that I doubt [not] has never been made at all -
I certainly have never seen any thing of the kind in any large work - I mean that perhaps in some of the tiny pastels I may have hinted at something like the crispness and sparkle I have now in my mind but a full length portrait is a very different matter -
You must excuse all this long and rather wild thinking aloud as who should say - Besides [p. 3] it is perhaps premature! We have to do it first!
With kindest regards to you all
Very Sincerely
J McN. Whistler
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToMiss Louise Kinsella -
20. Half Moon Street
Piccadilly
London - W -
[stamp:] POSTAGE AND INLAND REVENUE / ONE PENNY
[postmark:] HAMPSTEAD / N. W. / 1215 AM / JY 4 / 96
[postmark on verso:] LONDON-W. / A D / JY 4 / 96
Notes:
1. [4 July 1896]
Dated from the postmark and the date written on p. 1 in another hand.
2. Louise Kinsella
Louise Kinsella (d. 1923), patron of JW [more].
3. ALS
Written on paper with a mourning border.
4. Voiçi l'affaire
Fr., This is the situation.
5. picture
Rose et vert: L'Iris - Portrait of Miss Kinsella (YMSM 420). JW had been working on the portrait since June 1894.