System Number: 11454
Date: [1876/1879][1]]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Elizabeth Greaves[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscripts Division, Pennell Whistler Collection, PWC 9/649/3
Document Type: TLc[3]
Friday.
Dear Mrs Greaves -
Will you take pity upon a lonely bachelor - and with the young ladies[4], to whom present my compliments, and your sons, come and dine here tomorrow, Saturday, at 7 o'clock?
Horace[5] is still a truant, but Walter [6] and Harry[7] will play for us.
With kindest regards,
Very sincerely yours,
J. A. McN. Whistler.
[butterfly]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [1876/1879]
The letter probably dates from after JW's mother retired to Hastings in August 1875. JW was closely involved with the Greaves family in the 1870s.
2. Elizabeth Greaves
This was almost certainly written to Elizabeth Greaves (1810-1900), née Greenaway, wife of C. W. Greaves [more].
3. TLc
The original letter has not been located, but there are two typescript transcriptions in LC, with minor variations in punctuation (see also #11467). This transcription is based on PWC 9/635.
4. ladies
The Greaves children were Charles, Henry, Walter, Eliza, Emily, and Alice. Emily ('Eliza') Greaves (b. ca 1842), model [more]. Alice ('Tinnie') Fay Greaves (b. 1852), model [more] also posed for several paintings and drawings, including A lady standing: Tinnie Greaves (M.420).
5. Horace
Horace Jee, musician, JW's occasional secretary [more]. Jee and the Greaves brothers were Whistler's pupils, studio assistants, followers and/or hangers-on during the 1870s.
6. Walter
Walter Greaves (1846-1930), boatman and painter [more].
7. Harry
Henry Greaves (1843-1904), boat builder and painter [more].