Documents associated with: social
Record 49 of 51
System Number: 04840
Date: 4 August 1902
Author: Rosalind Birnie Philip[1]
Place: [The Hague]
Recipient: Inez Addams[2]
Place: [Dieppe]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler P480
Document Type: ALS
30. Lange Voorhout.
La Haye.
Aug: 4th 1902.
Dear Mrs Addams.
Your letter was very nice and interesting to us and we do want to hear more.
What especially intrigues and interests us is the condition of the Hotel Bellet with the two camps of Addams, on the one side, and Foster Sickert[3] on the other.
Do tell us something more about it all. Did Walter Sickert[4] try to make advances to either of you in any way, and did you breakfast in the little room where we were always? How does Walter Sickert look now, has his hair grown again?
[p. 2] Were there a great many people at the Restaurant Bellet, at breakfast & dinner, and was it as bright as in Madame Lefèvre's[5] time?
Was the Sickert singing brother there? Mr Whistler would be amused with any gossip you could send him.
He is better but the weather is discouraging and we are waiting for the fine day when we may drive him out.
Mr Addams[6] I suppose told you what a pretty place it is here, and how much you would like it. The woods around are beautiful & the fine old Dutch houses, to say nothing of the pictures. In the National Gallery at Amsterdam there is a full length[7] of Mr Whistler's. Did Mr Addams go & see it? [p. 3] It was beautifully hung & looked as if it had always belonged there.
The Director[8] of the Museum came to meet us & was most enthusiastic and hoped that the Master himself would come to see his work. We were disappointed at seeing no photograph of Mademoiselle Dianne[9]. Will you enclose a little one next time as my sister[10] would like to see her.
With kindest regards from us all.
Yours very sincerely.
Rosalind Birnie-Philip.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. Rosalind Birnie Philip
Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more].
2. Inez Addams
Inez Eleanor Addams (fl. 1898-1927), née Bate, painter [more].
3. Foster Sickert
Foster Sickert, possibly a relation of W. R. Sickert.
4. Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), artist and writer on art [more]. Sickert was living and working in Dieppe on the north coast of France.
5. Madame Lefèvre's
Mme Lefèvre, Dieppe landlady [more].
6. Mr Addams
Clifford Isaac Addams (1876-1942), etcher [more].
7. full length
Arrangement in Yellow and Grey: Effie Deans (YMSM 183).
8. Director
Not identified.
9. Mademoiselle Dianne
Dianne Addams (b. 1901), daughter of Clifford and Inez Addams [more].
10. sister
Ethel Whibley (1861-1920), née Philip, JW's sister-in-law [more]. JW was recuperating from serious illness. Rosalind Birnie Philip and her sister Ethel came over to The Hague to nurse him back to health.