System Number: 04793
Date: 25-27 February [1901][1]
Author: JW
Place: Ajaccio
Recipient: Rosalind Birnie Philip[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler P433
Document Type: ALS
HOTEL SCHWEIZERHOF
PROPT. A. BOSSHARDT
AJACCIO
(CORSE)
Monday[3] morning - Feb. 25.
I am really getting quite anxious about the letters Major! -
I cannot make out what has become of them?
Now yesterday - Sunday 24th, your letters of the 21st Feb (Friday) came - Thats not so bad - Yes - but in it you dont say a word about the cheque, that, as well as I make out, I sent you on the 19th. The cheque though I believe was dated 18th.
Then there was a letter I sent you for Cowan[4] - did you ever get that? - It was to be addressed and sent on - and it seems to me that all this was some time ago -
Yesterday, Sunday - I sent you the long and most interesting story of the "present Resident[5], - 35 - Tite Street" - with its big envelope - It was impossible to register it at the moment - and who knows who will snap it up! -
So by Tuesday or Wednesday you if you have not received it when you get this you had better begin to enquire -
You might wire "safe" when you have it - and remember "Ajaccio" is sufficient - Corsica is not necessary -
Tuesday[6] - 26, or 27 -
I really dont know any longer! -
I think I am tired out waiting! and impossible is this doing nothing! and curiously impossible to so anything! - I staid on after Ronnie[7] so that I might perhaps paint a head of a child or a lad that came, and in that way get myself into trim again before facing my old worries in the Studio - Well everything went against it! and I have only made myself troubled about what was too nervous for me to tackle! - and I really think I had done better to let everything alone until I got back - And I had better get back soon - It has rained for days together since Ronnies departure - And then inside it was impossible, for when the boy came to sit, out dribbled the wet sun and drove me crazy with his foolish reflections!
Now Monsieur le Conservateur[8] of the Museum here has lent me a corner of his Atelier - Well I was goose enough to rush into it with joy! - and of course I cannot possibly paint under his nose! - and yet I have him doing that very absurd thing quite hopelessly & uselessly - and bothered myself to death with little ragamuffins who are entirely too wild to sit! - & I am too nervous to work with them -
Wednesday -
This goes with the boat to Marseilles - & you ought to have it on Friday - ? - Your letters have come Major - [p. 2] Several - The last contained list of lithographs - Excellent but I hope you did not take proofs out of the frames? - I have written to OK[9] - & sent prices for the 5 first -
Your letters very nice Major - This must go - So many things to you all -
Tell Ronnie I had his two telegrams & wired acknowledgment - But not a letter from him has reached me yet!! -
the General
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Notes:
1. 25-27 February [1901]
Written from Monday to Wednesday. Year dated from JW's known trip to Corsica.
2. Rosalind Birnie Philip
Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more]. JW called her 'Major' and himself 'General'.
3. Monday
Except for the date, this was written in pencil.
4. Cowan
John James Cowan (1846-1936), paper manufacturer and collector [more].
5. Resident
Not identifed (see #04792).
6. Tuesday
Double underlined.
7. Ronnie
Ronald Murray Philip (1871-1940), civil engineer, JW's brother-in-law [more]. His telegrams have not been located.
8. Monsieur le Conservateur
François Péraldi, curator [more]. See Museum interior (?) with a man seated (M.1658).
9. OK
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), dealer with H. Wunderlich and Co., New York [more].