System Number: 10925
Date: 10 December 1890
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Algernon Graves[1]
Place: [London]
Repository: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Call Number: f MS A 1412
Credit Line: Published by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Document Type: ALS[2]
21, CHEYNE WALK,
CHELSEA.
Dec. 10. 1890.
Dear Mr. Graves -
I write to acknowledge your letter of the 9th[3].
It is quite true that you and your Father[4] have been most amiable and courteous in all your relations with me - and I take this occasion to again express my appreciation of your delicacy in dealing with me -
You have shown that you understand how an artist whose work is without the pale of gross popularity, & whose purse is consequently not heavy with ill gotten gold, may [p. 2] may [sic] be met with, even great, patience - and hereafter in history this shall not be forgotten!
Meantime I thank you & your Father for your most considerate forbearance - and I announce to you with pleasure, that I am now in a position in which I can say that I shall send you, this very next week, the price, in full, for the picture in question, ("Miss Franklin"[5][)] which I bought from you, & which you will find entered on the list[6] of the works you sold to me, & of which I hold the copy -
Also I do hope, now that there appears to be a new curiosity about these matters, that I shall rapidly pay off the sums that remain still due upon the other Paintings
Pray present my compliments to your Father -
Very truly Yours
J. McNeill Whistler -
To
Algernon Graves Esq.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Algernon Graves
Algernon Graves (1845-1922), of H. Graves and Co., print dealers [more]. He replied on the following day (#01831).
2. ALS
There is a draft of this letter (#01830).
4. Father
Henry Graves (1806-1892), print dealer and founder of H. Graves and Co. [more].
5. Miss Franklin
Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket (YMSM 181).