Documents associated with: health (JW)
Record 160 of 172
System Number: 01879
Date: 24 August 1902
Author: James Guthrie[1]
Place: Glasgow
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler G244
Document Type: ALS[2]
7. Woodside Place.
Glasgow.
WEST HOUSE,GLEBE PLACE,CHELSEA. S. W.
August 24th / 1902
Forgive me, dear Mr Whistler, for this delay.
With the first of it I had nothing to do for I was from home - Since my return ten days have drifted past - We go to the Country next week for five or six months and are preparing
But I am [p. 2] delighted to hear from you and to hear from you to such good purpose -
It was most kind of you in friendliness to send me the letter[3] to the "Morning Post" with the leader -
I had not seen them. Indeed it was in my mind to write to the Hague to ask how you were - when someone told me you [p. 3] were at Chelsea again.
Next I saw a short paragraph quoting a sentence or so from your letter - So entirely without context, however, that I could not divine just what had taken place.
Now all is plain - with how charming a clearness!
I have had the greatest pleasure from the reading of your delightfully written letter.
It is as bright - as exquisite - and as full of life as [p. 4] anything you have written - More one cannot say!
And I also rejoice in the Morning Post's own testimony - ungrudging in spirit - appropriate in form -
Now I think you must be glad, for the things that come your way in these days (long earned and over earned as they have been) are things that represent realities -
Are these not the true laurels?
With best wishes
Yours Sincerely
James Guthrie
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Notes:
1. James Guthrie
James Guthrie (1859-1930), landscape and portrait painter [more].
2. ALS
Written on narrow bordered mourning paper.
3. letter
3 August 1902, #09458, and 7 August [1902], #09329. Whistler, James McNeill, 'Latest Bulletin From Mr. Whistler,' The Morning Post, 6 August 1902. JW had recently recovered from serious illness, contracted during a trip to Holland with Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more]. Disturbed by the obitual tone of a report in the Morning Post, he wrote a characteristically acerbic reply.