Documents associated with: sculpture
Record 9 of 26
System Number: 05603
Date: [11/12 May 1889?][1]
Author: Julian Story[2]
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler S249
Document Type: ALS
My dear Jimmy -
If I could not be with you in the flesh at your dinner[3] I was all there in the spirit[4] and disgusted beyond words not to be able to get away from the rows here to add my voice to the many -
[p. 2] As you know of the idiotic action of the sculpture Jury you also know the reason which tied me by the leg here.
The end of that business was that the art commissioner (an an[5]) [sic] Genl Hawkins[6] came to me and said that the whole commission had decided that this could not be allowed to pass and [p. 3] begged me to leave my fathers[7] thing in the exhibition as well as Waldos[8] & mine which I had withdrawn. They made every apology so that I had no alternative - but what do you think of the sculpture Jury who after this snub did not send in their resignation, but sat down and accepted this overruling quite mildly? [p. 4] I cannot now explain all the details but they would amuse you
Fred Lawless[9] arrived bringing all the news of your dinner[.] What a success it must have been & how sorry I am that I was not there to enjoy it. Your speech I hear was perfect -
I am off to Rome probably at the end of this week but I hope in about a month's time to be in London where we shall meet.
Ever yrs
Julian Story
[p. 1] I hope you[10] have given the American Sculpture Jury Snuff.
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Notes:
1. [11/12 May 1889?]
Dated by reference to sculpture (see below).
2. Julian Story
Julian Russell Story (1850-1919), genre and portrait painter [more].
3. dinner
Held in JW's honour at the Criterion, in London on 1 May 1889.
4. in the spirit
1 Corinthians 5.3 - 'For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit ...'
5. an an
This may imply a query of the status of the Commissioner.
6. Genl Hawkins
Gen. Rush Christopher Hawkins (1831-1920), U. S. commissioner for Fine Art at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889 [more]. The problems over the jury's decision about what sculpture to admit to the Exposition are referred to in a letter from Hurlbert to JW on 12 May 1889 (#02236).
7. my fathers
William Wetmore Story (1819-1895), sculptor and writer [more].
8. Waldos
Thomas Waldo Story (1854-1915), sculptor [more].
9. Fred Lawless
Hon. Frederick Lawless (1847-1929), sculptor [more].
10. I hope you
Remainder of text written in left margin, at right angles to main text.