System Number: 03238
Date: 22 April [1893][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Alexander Reid[2]
Place: [Glasgow]
Repository: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: FGA Whistler 214
Credit Line: Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer
Document Type: ALS[3]
110. Rue du Bac - Paris -
Saturday April. 22.
Dear Mr Reid -
Enclosed I send the answer from the Secretary of Champs de Mars[4], to my request for tickets - I am so sorry that the little courtesies of life are in this way withdrawn from us! -
Early this morning - at 8.30!! I sent you telegram begging you to borrow and send me immediately the Pastel "the Shell[5]" - I want it immensely to show at the Champ de Mars - and there is not a moment to be lost - Do get it for me at once - and you might also perhaps get me another of the girl seated with baby on her knee[6] - It would be so nice and kind of you if you manage all this and if you would [p. 2] just send a wire of a word tomorrow just to say "all right" - so that I may tell the Secretary that the pastels are coming! -
I suppose you will be over here almost directly -
Did you give my messages to Baillie Crawford[7]? -
Is the young baby McNeill[8] very beautiful? -
Always sincerely
J McN Whistler
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. 22 April [1893]
22 April fell on a Saturday in 1893.
2. Alexander Reid
Alexander Reid (1854-1936), Glasgow dealer [more].
3. ALS
A copy in the hand of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more], may be found in GUL Whistler LB 4/74.
4. Secretary
Hippolyte Durand Tahier (1863-1899), art critic, general secretary for the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts [more].
5. The Shell
The Shell (M.1291).
6. girl seated
There are several pastels that fit this description, see Study: Woman and child (M.1286). JW changed his mind and did not send either pastel to the Salon.
7. Baillie Crawford
Robert Crawford (1845-1915), of Burns, Crawford and Co. [more].
8. McNeill
Alexander James McNeill Reid (1893-1972), son of the dealer A. Reid [more].