System Number: 05826
Date: 22 October 1895[1]
Author: David Croal Thomson[2]
Place: London
Recipient: JW
Place: [Lyme Regis]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler T171
Document Type: ALS
THE GOUPIL GALLERY
[Royal coat of arms]
BOUSSOD VALADON & CO.
5, REGENT STREET, S. W.
TELEGRAMS, BOUSSOD, LONDON.
London
Oct 22d 1895.
Dear Mr Whistler,
I owe you a thousand apologies for not writing but as the picture[3] only came this afternoon I was unable to say any thing in reply to your notes until I saw it.
I have now seen it & I find the best reply is to send you the [p. 2] enclosed cheque for £60, which I trust you will find correct as from a dealer who finds it troublesome to deal in guineas which cannot translate into dollars or francs!
I buy the picture for my firm because I like it & because I want at this time to meet you in every way I can. I have not yet sold the 'Cottages[4]' but that is not of any real consequence as we can wait. All the same if guineas you must have I will send the 5% more.
[p. 3] I think of sending this little picture to Paris as our people there ask such. If therefore you have any more ready or when they are ready let me see them direct from yourself or from friend Richards[5] & not through any ——— Englishman!
I want to buy from you yourself & especially just now & shall do so every time you give me the chance unless the fates are altogether against me.
Please tell me if the £60 is quite [p. 4] satisfactory & in acknowledging the cheque say if the picture is altogether recent work. Not that it matters, but I like the colour & want to know.
Mrs Whistler[6] has seen it. It had just come here when Mrs Whistlers message arrived & I had it sent over to her.
We have to-day received 'Sarasate[7]' from Mr Prange[8]!
Yours vy truly
D. C. Thomson
P. S.[9] Would it please you for Mrs Thomson[10] & her two little girls to call on Mrs Whistler?
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. 22 October 1895
Thomson wrote another letter to JW later that day; see #05825.
2. David Croal Thomson
David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), art dealer [more].
3. picture
See JW's reply to Thomson, [24 October 1895], #08379.
4. Cottages
Green and Silver: The Devonshire Cottages (YMSM 266).
5. Richards
Stephen Richards (b. ca 1845), picture restorer [more].
6. Mrs Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]. She was seriously ill with cancer, and had recently returned to London from Lyme Regis.
7. Sarasate
Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate (YMSM 315).
8. Mr Prange
Francis Gerard Prange (b. ca 1843), London art dealer [more].
9. P. S.
Double underlined.
10. Mrs Thomson
Alice Mary Thomson (d. 1928), née Halton, wife of D. C. Thomson [more].