System Number: 08108
Date: [19/26 December 1884?][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: William Booth Pearsall[2]
Place: [Dublin]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 2/40/6
Document Type: ALS
13. Tite Street - Chelsea -
Dear Mr. Pearsall.
I fear I must seem very remiss in acknowledging all your kindnesses but I have been absent -
I have sent receipt to Mr Jonathan Hogg[3] - as you wished - and am very much obliged to you -
Again with very many thanks and hoping one of these days to make your personal acquaintance
Always sincerely Yrs
J. McNeill Whistler
Over[4]
[p. 2] By a strange chance I did not turn over the final leaf of your note which was accidentally stuck fast at the edge! I see now further proof of your kind solicitude - for which and your kind wishes I thank you heartily - Of course you must do just as you think advisable about the photographs[5] - I shall be delighted to see the proofs -
The proposed etching[6] is barely begun - You will have a proof naturally -
'Je vous la souhaite bonne et heureuse[7]!'
[butterfly signature]
I am writing to the Secty.[8] to say how greatly pleased I am with my election to the Club -
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [19/26 December 1884?]
This letter comes shortly after a letter from A. Williams of the the Dublin Sketching Club to JW dated 18 December 1884 (#00968).
2. William Booth Pearsall
William Booth Pearsall (1845-1913), dentist, Dublin exhibition organiser [more].
3. Mr Jonathan Hogg
Nocturne in grey and gold - Piccadilly (M.862) and Sunrise; gold and grey (M.917) were bought by Rt. Hon. Jonathan Hogg (1847-1930), PC, collector [more]. Hogg was amused to get a receipt 'for an impression was rife amongst the public, that he never attended to business matters' (Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 36).
4. Over
Double underlined.
5. photographs
JW's twenty-five works were hung in a group. Pearsall told the Pennells, 'As I was so interested in them, with Mr Whistler's permission, I had them photographed' (ibid., p. 36).
6. etching
No etchings by JW at this time are known. Perhaps he meant a reproduction of an oil painting such as Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate (YMSM 315), of which JW made several drawings (M.998-1000) and which would be reproduced in the Magazine of Art, 1885, p. 469.
7. Je vous la souhaite bonne et heureuse
Fr., I wish you a good and happy New Year.
8. I am writing to the Secty.
Sentence written in left margin of p. 1. According to Pearsall, some non-painter members of the Dublin Sketching Club wanted to ensure no such works as those by JW were ever again exhibited. Pearsall responded by having JW elected an Honorary Member of the Club, 'despite intense resistance' (Pennell, op. cit., p. 36).