System Number: 06650
Date: [29 November 1895][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Lyme Regis]
Recipient: Beatrix Whistler[2]
Place: London
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler W644
Document Type: ALS
Chink!
You never saw such noses Winks!
The fact is the Red & Black & Gold Gentleman[3] has been out again today! and ramping round! and the Grinder Butterfly Jim is madder than ever!. - And I will tell you what I am going to do - So that the Wam shall not be too much in the dark - & wearied with waiting in this unlimited [p. 2] way - and I fancy too that she cannot as yet quite believe that things really go on differently altogether in the Studio - so that she is still uneasy fancying at times that the old scraper & Monkey Soap are yet in full swing - - (unberufen[4]! let us not boast! -) - Nevertheless - a good word! - This is what I have combined -
Little Thomson[5] - the obedient & devoted! has had the frames all got ready - and so [p. 3][6] I have had a couple of them sent here - they came down yesterday - And so while I am still hanging on to these children - whose noses I dont think you have seen out side the Louvre! - I will let the dear beautiful Luck have a sly peep - earlier than it had been at first planned! - One at a time shall come up - and she shall sit and gaze at it in the drawing room of the Street of the Halluff[7] [sic] Moon - until the next - which we can only pray she may [p. 4] like better! - and until the Grinder himselluff [sic] appear bringing the last [wuk?] with him! -
Now what do you think of that! - I think it a charming arrangement - only of course I shall miss being by when she sees the first! - Perhaps I had better be absent! at that trying moment! - "However"! if the experiment turn out well - and she really is pleased - well I shall still have something in reserve! to give myself a countenance when I do turn up -
Well I had hoped to have got you off one tomorrow - but a leetle [sic] more - just a leetle more - and it shall go
You might[8] begin to expect something on Monday afternoon - Mr Thomson's man to appear with a mysterious [Wuk?] in a cab - Hadn't you better let the Major[9] go round to his place and ask them to send you round an easel first - so that you wont have the things tumbling off chairs? -
One of these days I shall tell you how worked I have been here! - What with the pictures - & Thomson - & Huish[10]! You dont know - & arranging Exhibition & writing and inventing every thing myself!
Well thank Heavens I seem to thrive on it - Like the cart horse you know!
As long as he is in the shafts and the wheels behind him turn, he keeps his legs going!
So thats all right - And now Chinks I must send a line to Huish & get off a package of lithographs by this same post! The place is full of telegrams! & they simply depend helplessly upon me!
Mind you have a beautiful sleep Wink! & think of what he is going to send her! & bless the Wam & her . . Painter!
[butterfly signature]
And the little prayers - that we may both be well! -
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToMrs J. McNeill Whistler
8. Half Moon Street
Piccadilly
London -
[stamp x 2:] POSTAGE & REVENUE / ONE HALF PENNY
[postmark:] LYME REGIS / D / NO29 / 95
[postmark on verso:] LONDON. W / C 7 / NO 30 / 95
Notes:
1. [29 November 1895]
Dated from the postmark.
2. Beatrix Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]. JW calls her 'Chink', 'Winks' and 'Wam'.
3. Gentleman
Possibly the Genie of the Lamp, as in the Arabian Night's Entertainments, and also referred to by JW in earlier letters, such as that of the previous day, #06649.
4. unberufen
Ger., unbidden.
5. Thomson
David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), art dealer [more].
6. [p. 3]
This page is actually numbered '(2.)' at the top, although it is the third side of text.
7. Halluff
Beatrix Whistler lodged briefly at 8 Half Moon Street in London. JW is parodying an English accent.
8. You might ... Monday
'You might ... Monday' is written in the left margin of p. 4; 'afternoon ... chairs? -' in the margins of p. 3; 'One of ... legs going!' in the margins of p. 2; and 'So ... well!' in the margins of p. 1.
9. Major
Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more].
10. Huish
Marcus Bourne Huish (1843 - d.1921), barrister, writer and art dealer, Director of the Fine Art Society [more].