System Number: 08200
Date: [6 May 1892][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: David Croal Thomson[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 3
Document Type: ALS[3]
33. Rue de Tournon. Paris.
Dear Sir -
Many thanks for letter[4] - Glad you are back -
Business - What you have done has been perfect - I am absorbed in the superb studio[5] now getting ready for me -
Portraits. You might make arrangements for them to come to me here -
Champs de Mars[6]. My success complete - all along the line! - This morning's Figaro - first article Whistler first mentioned after the President Puvis de Chavanne[7]!
[p. 2] Lady Meux[8] picture enormous success! Also the Nocturnes Marines[9] etc. - - I send you cutting from Figaro - you ought to have it into English for some papers tomorrow that it may continue the assertion made in your Galleries - and add to effect of "The Voice of a People[10]" - This voice of another People! -
Ruskin[11] - Will see to those volumes at once -
Album. Certainly it ought to do beautifully - Don't know who made portfolios for the other - Can't you get anything out of little Brown - or Mr Huish[12]! -
Am glad you are going to alter some of negatives - my former letter is full of details to guide you -
Certainly do the little White Girl[13] over again - I am sure Mr Potter[14] will be all right - I have had very nice letters from him - Mr Chapman[15] has behaved shockingly -
You might ask Mr. Heinemann[16] - 21 Bedford Street Covent Garden - (you know he published The Gentle Art[17]) to give you the address of the people who bound the book -
He would be delighted to do anything to help us in this matter - (I mean Mr Heinemann -) and could perhaps tell you one or two things as to price of binding. etc etc
News. Tell me anything of the other shows etc!! - Also R. A. matters - They must be shocking I hear -
Affairs - The superb success here - on the top of the heroic kick in Bond Street, must I should think from your point of view, open up amazing prospect in the way of prices etc!! portraits! etc - -
But besides portraits the other kind of pictures I wrote to you about I should think you could do great things with - Don't miss, for mischief's sake, [p. 3] rubbing the Figaro - into the scribbling lot over there! -
Very truly Yrs
J. McN. Whistler
[Date stamp:] GOUPIL AND COMPANY
7 MAY. 92
SUCCESSORS BOUSSOD VALADON & CO.
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
ToD. C. Thomson Esq.
Goupil Gallery .
116. 117. New Bond St.
London
Angleterre
[stamp:] POSTE / REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE / 25
[postmark:] PARIS / RUE BONAPARTE / 6E 6 / MAI / 92
[postmark on verso:] LONDON W / V 7 / MY7 / 92
Notes:
1. 6 May 1892
Dated from the postmark.
2. David Croal Thomson
David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), art dealer [more].
3. ALS
'29B' was written in red ink at the top, and '33' at the foot of p.1 in pencil; and '29B' and '33' on the envelope, in unknown hands.
5. studio
At 110 rue du Bac.
6. Champs de Mars
2nd Exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1892.
7. President Puvis de Chavanne
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), painter [more].
8. Lady Meux
Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux (YMSM 229).
9. Nocturnes Marines
Paintings exhibited in his London exhibition, Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892.
10. The Voice of a People
JW used this phrase on a preliminary page of his Goupil exhibition catalogue (see above); taken from Samuel 8:7: 'And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.'
11. Ruskin
John Ruskin (1819-1900), critic, social reformer and artist [more]; JW had been lent a copy of Ruskin's Modern Painters, London, 1843-1860.
12. Brown and Mr Huish
Ernest George Brown (1853 or 1854-1915), assistant manager at the Fine Art Society [more], and Marcus Bourne Huish (1843 - d.1921), barrister, writer and art dealer, Director of the Fine Art Society [more].
13. White Girl
Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (YMSM 52). Thomson was to publish a set of photographs of JW's paintings.
14. Mr Potter
John Charles Potter (1854-1920), wallpaper manufacturer and collector [more].
15. Mr Chapman
Alfred Chapman (1839-1917), engineer and collector [more].
16. Mr. Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].
17. Gentle Art
Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 2nd ed., London and New York, 1892.