Description

Notebook with cardboard cover, covered with paper having a printed flower pattern of white daisies with yellow centres, and green leaves, on a dark red background; inside cover, paper with white and purple trompe l'oeuil cube pattern; held closed by a purple plaited band.

One side of the paper has a neat slight chequered grain, the other a matt surface. The paper is very browned, with gilt edges. The squares are under 4mm. Inside cover: Inscribed 'Aj' [Ajaccio?].

p. 1: Hat? Pencil. Inscribed with draft of a letter to Inez Eleanor Addams (1874-1958): 'pour completer par leur présence la belle céremonie et recevoir les adieux étonnés des éleves .' 1 Inez Addams was Whistler's apprentice and Massière of the Académie Carmen in Paris, which was closed, on Whistler's instructions, in 1901. The letter was written over a big round shape, shaded, possibly a hat, which had been rubbed.

p. 3: Lady at dinner. 2 Pen and black ink. Areas below the plate, and at top right, were scraped out carefully and reworked (but the grid of blue lines came off with the drawing).

p. 6: Draft of letter to Lady Skinner. 3

p. 7: Seated woman wearing a large hat. Pencil. A very faint drawing, with an element of caricature.

p. 9: Three lines, possible the beginning of a drawing of a head. Pencil.

p. 11: Woman leaning her head on her hand. Pencil. Signed with butterfly. A weak drawing, with diagonal shading.

p. 13: Man’s head and shoulders. Pencil. Another faint sketch.

p. 14: Man’s head. Pencil. A summary sketch, face on.

p. 17: Donkeys pulling a cart. Pencil. Drawn with a hard sharp pencil.

Inside back cover: Flowering plant in a pot. Pencil.

Site

Ajaccio, Corsica.

Sitter

There are a number of drawings of this woman (A lady reciting [M.1661], Woman in profile left [M.1662], and A lady seated, reciting [M.1663]) but she has not been identified.