System Number: 08133
Date: [March/July 1884][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues[2]
Place: [London]
Place: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 2/52/5
Document Type: ALS
Cher Maestro -
Nous avons été vous écouter et vous voir - Je vous ai trouvé tout simplement splendide! -
Si mon portrait[3] rende [sic] votre grand air Artiste je serai bien fier de mon travail -
Nous déjeunerons demain à midi - venez donc un peu avant - à midi moins le quart ou à [p. 2] onze heures et demie, si cela ne vous fatigue pas trop -
[butterfly signature]
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
Dear Maestro -
We have been to hear you and see you - I thought you were simply splendid! -
If my portrait gives an impression of your appearance as a great Artist I shall be proud of my work -
We shall be lunching tomorrow at midday - come a little early - a quarter to twelve or half past eleven, if this will not fatigue you too much -
[butterfly signature]
Notes:
1. [March/July 1884]
Dated from reference to painting (see below).
2. Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues
Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues (1844-1908), violinist [more].
3. portrait
This relates to the painting of Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate (YMSM 315). According to the St James Gazette, on 7 July 1884, it had just been completed. Sarasate himself seems not to have cared much either about painting or about his portrait (as reported by Théodore Duret (1838-1927), art critic and collector [more]; see Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980, cat. no. 315).