System Number: 07508
Date: [May 1892][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: a newspaper editor[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler X78
Document Type: ALd
What a Godsend was - this patron[3] - to Rosetti[4]! cries this confrère of the Academy Mr Prinsep[5] -
The converse only is true - What a Godsend was Rossetti to the very successful shipowner - Without him, this wealthy person would never have been heard of, and urged from his neglected busy obscurity. -
Undisturbed in his counting house near the docks he would have passed through his term in the parish - and the indecency of the publication of his diary would have been without opportunity -
[sketch of a man and a woman's head][6]
[p. 2] It is has been accepted that the best material for a silk purse, is silk - and out of paste buckles and paper collars you cannot
How inconsequent is this - acquaintance fatally tends to intimacy - would and it is difficult to "quarrel" with a man one does not know." without intimacy - or acquaintance of some kind at least is a necessary prelude to a quar I take it necessary before a "quarrel" can well be entertained - & "intimacy" is the rational prelude to rupture -
Once a friend - always an enemy! is & the true philosophy of daily life - (the fatality inevitable of inferior surroundings [...]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [May 1892]
Dated by the reference to an article (see below) and by the purple ink used by JW at this time.
2. a newspaper editor
This letter does not appear to have been published; since it relates to an article in the Art Journal it could have been addressed to the editor, Marcus Bourne Huish (1843 - d.1921), barrister, writer and art dealer, Director of the Fine Art Society [more].
3. patron
Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892), ship-owner and art collector [more].
4. Rosetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), artist and poet [more].
5. Mr Prinsep
Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1836-1904), painter and writer [more]. His article, Prinsep, Val, 'The Private Art Collections of London. The Late Mr Frederick Leyland's [Collection] in Prince's Gate. First Paper - Rossetti and his Friend,' The Art Journal, new series, no. 647, May 1892, pp 129-134, included anecdotes about JW as well as Leyland.
6. [sketch of a man and a woman's head]
Possibly by Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more], since it appears to show JW.