System Number: 09872
Date: 22 May [1896][1]
Author: William Merritt Chase[2]
Place: London
Recipient: Edward Guthrie Kennedy[3]
Place: Paris
Repository: New York Public Library
Call Number: E. G. Kennedy II/83
Credit Line: Edward Guthrie Kennedy Papers / Manuscripts and Archives Division / The New York Public Library / Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Document Type: ALS
'1896'
WATERLOO HOTEL,
85 & 86 JERMYN STREET
PICCADILLY
LONDON, W.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS / FEDORA LONDON
May 22nd.
My dear Kennedy
I am much disappointed not to find you here. You will find my card at your Hotel in Paris.
I would have liked to have seen the exhibitions with you. We have had a splendid time ever since we left home, and I shall have much to tell [p. 2] you when we meet again. I have only just heard - with much regret that Mrs. Whistler[4] died about a week ago - I should like to see him, but I will not because I suppose the poor fellow is in no frame of mind to see anyone just now. I wish you would express to him, when you see him, my regrets and sympathy. We sail tomorrow on the "Paris" and that means that we will soon be home [p. 3] again - "Keep your pecker up" and have a good time.
your friend,
Wm. M. Chase.
P.S. Whistlers portrait of his mother [5]- in the Luxembourg - is the only painting I have seen since I left Madrid that one might hang next Velasquez[6] -
Chase
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
'May 22, 1896'
Mr. E. G. KennedyHotel Terminus
Rue St Lazare
Paris
France
[written in the bottom left corner:] W. M. Chase
[postmark:] LONDON [...] / MY 22 / 95
Notes:
1. 22 May [1896]
Dated from the postmark and dates written in another hand at the top of p. 1 and on the envelope.
2. William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), painter [more].
3. Edward Guthrie Kennedy
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), dealer with H. Wunderlich and Co., New York [more].
4. Mrs Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more], died on 10 May.
5. portrait of his mother
Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101).
6. Velasquez
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660), painter [more]; JW's work, including the portrait of his mother, had been frequently compared with that of the Spanish master.