Description

Design for a picture frame, Baltimore Museum of Art

The sketch is on the verso of a letter written on 18 October 1862 in which Whistler asked G. A. Lucas to order picture frames in Paris for his oil paintings:

'Now I want the assistance of your good taste - I am painting a couple of pictures and wish on my arrival in Paris to have frames ready for them - Will you have the great kindness to order them for me from your frame-maker? - The first is for a sea piece of deep tone, and I should like it to be something like the one I had for the painting I brought from Brittany last year (which you remember) richly carved, and bold - deep and rather broad; massive but not cumbersome, and well finished.

Not dear though, mon cher, if possible.

The canvass [sic] is one of the regular French dimension, "toile de soixante" - The second is a "toile de vingt" for which I want a very pretty frame, highly finished, brilliant and rich - deep also, and rather broad. This is an order and will hang in a drawing room, so that the finish must not be neglected -' 1