UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler
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Documents associated with: decoration, house
Record 13 of 26

System Number: 02466
Date: [1884?][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Henry Labouchère[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler L3
Document Type: ALd


My dear Statesman & Decorator[3]! -

Mrs Labouchère[4] tells me you are going to sell the Connie[5] - and it is proposed that Mr [Horace?] Webster[6] is to hang her on his walls -

It would grieve me that the picture should go from yours into any other hands but my own -

Let me buy it and give you the money that you would have got from him ask him for it -

I dont m This would be very nice of you - and the proper Let us talk it over - Or I will tell you what would be really the thing to do, If her Mama likes the idea, I will paint you a full length picture of little Miss Dorothy Labouchère[7] -

This[8] I should be charmed to do - and you would start in your new Palace as a great 'Art Patron'! -

[p. 2] 'To Labouchere[9] re Connie Gilchrist'


This document is protected by copyright.


Notes:

1.  [1884?]
Dated from reference to painting (see below).

2.  Henry Labouchère
Henry Du Pré Labouchère (1831-1912), journalist and Liberal MP [more].

3.  Statesman & Decorator
Labouchère was a Member of Parliament, and was apparently decorating his new house.

4.  Mrs Labouchère
Henrietta Labouchère (1841-1910), née Hodson, actress, wife of Henry Labouchère [more].

5.  Connie
Constance MacDonald Gilchrist (1865-1946), dancer and actress, later Countess of Orkney [more]. J. E. Blanche recorded seeing Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 190) in JW's studio in 1884 (Blanche, Jacques-Emile, 'James McNeill Whistler,' Renaissance Latine, June 1905, pp. 353-78, p. 358). JW was not satisfied with it and it was only returned to Labouchère after JW's death (see YMSM 190).

6.  Mr [Horace?] Webster
H. [Horace?] Webster (b. ca 1851), a collector [more].

7.  Miss Dorothy Labouchère
Dorothy Labouchère (d. 1920), daughter of the editor, Henry Labouchère [more]; as far as is known, JW did not paint her.

8.  This ... 'Art Patron'! -
Written in right margin.

9.  To Labouchere ... Gilchrist
Written in another hand, possibly that of Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more].