Sales catalogue 451: Maggs Bros

Date:
1924
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/29
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 451: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    435/448 (page 405)
    1542 WHISTLER (JAMES McNEILL, 1834-1903). Painter and Etcher. A LENGTHY AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (BUTTERFLY) TO MR. THOMAS WAY, HIS LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTER. 4 pp., small oblong 8vo. Paris, 14th September, 1894. With envelope. £18 Entirely concerning his experiments in lithography; a letter of great length and of the utmost interest and importance. ee Mind you, the two Forges are disappointments to us now, but you must remember that we have been making amazing progress! and some time ago, T daresay we should have thought, with a certain pleasant astonishment, that we were doing very wonderful things indeed and we produced these two failures then ! ‘The failure is really I believe more my fault than yours. . . . Look at ‘La Belle Jardiniere.’ There the result is excellent, not too much stump. The perfection in employment of that paper is seen in ‘ La Jolie, ‘New Yorkaise,’ ‘ Louise Quinze’ (the visit, old title). That is a fine drawing, short and sharp, as it ought to be. : ‘‘ The second little Forge was an old bit, and even it had some beautiful results. All the simple lines were of a charming quality—shutters—top window, etc., much prettier than in the other, and devoid of any of the grittiness of the usual ‘ lithogr aph. d ’ oH Certainly I mean that the newest and most beautiful quality I have reached, is in ‘ The Belle dame Paresseuse,’ and that was on a paper of the same kind, though I fancied of an inferior condition. Take a fine proof of this and put beside it. any one of the old lithographs out of your portfolio, and then see how this ‘ belle dame’ looks fair and silvery, and beautiful in the qualit: of the blacks. Indeed far away more like the charcoal drawing itself of the painter, ie anything that had ever been printed. : ‘‘ Lithography shall develope into a very strange matter indeed and the fun & the mystery will begin in earnest! “Wait till | get some more nude figures, too! beside—well never mind just yet.”’ Ete. 1543 WHISTLER (JAMES McNEILL). AUTOGRAPH LETIER SIGNED (BUT TERPEY) TO THE: SAME. 2 pp., small 8vo. Paris, 5th September, 1894. With envelope. £8 10s Concerning his experiments with the new paper. - . It takes the chalk in a most fascinating way, and produces all the rich effects of stump without using the stumps at all. . ““T feel that with this paper if perfect, I could do wonders. What do you say? You see the drawings themselves are getting better. Well I must wait and see.”