System Number: 11670
Date: [19 March 1892][1]
Author: Beatrix Whistler[2]
Place: Paris
Recipient: Charles Lang Freer[3]
Place: Detroit
Repository: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: FGA Whistler 274
Credit Line: Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer
Document Type: ALS[4]
33. Rue de Tournon -
Paris
My dear Mr Freer,
Your kind letter has followed us here, where we have been staying for some time -
We are very pleased that you and Mr Hecker[5] - like the lithographs. They certainly do look beautiful on the Dutch paper. I think I sent [p. 2] you one or two on Japanese, which do you like best?
Mr Whistler thanks you very much for the charming things you said about the purchase of his mother's picture[6] by the French Government -
You would be very much amused at the difference it has made in the tone of the London papers!! They say it is disgrace to England that such a picture was [p. 3] allowed to go out of the country, quite ignoring the fact that this is one of the pictures they laughed at!! Two or three have said "Whistler's are the only pictures which will gain in value as time goes on." &c. &c.
We are very interested in the exhibition[7] of the pictures the Goupils have borrowed, which opens next Monday, It will be curious to see the result
I hope Mr Whistler will be able to borrow - some for Chicago[8]
What is this that we see in [p. 4] a Glasgow-paper, that there has been some talk in Chicago of commissioning Mr Whistler to paint a picture in commemoration of the Chicago Exhibition as it was his Grandfather[9] who selected the site of the city, which - I believe - is quite true - Will you let us know - if you have heard anything of this?
Will you tell Mrs Freer[10] - how much we congratulate her - on her marriage - or rather how much we congratulate your brother[11] -
With our kindest regards to you and Mr & Mrs Hecker[12] -
Believe me
Very sincerely yours
Beatrix Whistler
P S Mr Whistler will select the Venice Etchings for you -
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
'answd[13]'
America
ToC. Freer - Esq,
Alfred Street
Detroit
Michigan
United States of America
[stamp:] POSTE / 25 / REBUBLIQUE FRANCAISE
[postmark:] PARIS 6 / R. DE VAUGIRARD / 6E 19 / MARS / 92
[postmark on verso:] NEW YORK / MAR / 28 / H / 92 / PAID / ALL / L
[postmark on verso:] REC'D DETROIT. MICH. VIA [...] TR. 802. / MAR 30 1892
Notes:
1. [19 March 1892]
Dated from the postmark.
2. Beatrix Whistler
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].
3. Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more].
4. ALS
Published by Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington and London, 1995, no. 11, pp. 83-85.
5. Mr Hecker
Col. Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927), partner of C. L. Freer, Michigan and Peninsular Car Company [more].
6. mother's picture
Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101).
7. exhibition
Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892.
8. Chicago
World's Columbian Exposition, Department of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1893.
9. Grandfather
John Whistler (d. 1829), father of George Washington Whistler [more].
10. Mrs Freer
Mrs Watson Freer (m. 1891), née Hecker, sister-in-law to C. L. Freer [more].
11. brother
Watson Freer (1863-1922), brother of C. L. Freer [more].
12. Mrs Hecker
Anna Hecker (b. ca 1844), wife of Frank J. Hecker [more].
13. answd
Written in another hand on left left side of envelope.