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FGA no. 38, JMW to CLF
Pmk: 24 March 1897 [London]
Address: Charles L. Freer. Esq
33. Ferry Avenue
Detroit
Michigan
U.S.A.
[pencil notation on env. in CLF's hand: Very important letter Black-bordered mourning stationery, env. closed with black wax imprinted with seal of trefoil-butterfly design (cf. JMW letter to Lady Colin Campbell, FGA no. 16, for illus.)]
[MS:]
Shall I begin by saying to you, my dear Mr Freer, that your little "Blue & Gold Girl" is doing her very best to look lovely for you?--Perhaps it were well--and so you shall be assured that though steamer after steamer leave in apparently ungracious silence, it is that only of the pen.
I write to you many letters on your canvas!--and one of these days, you will, by degrees, read them all, as you sit before your picture--
And, in them, you will find, I hope, dimly conveyed, my warm feeling of affectionate appreciation for the friendship that has shown itself to me, in my forlorn destruction--as it had done before, in our hapiness, to both of us--And in the work, perhaps, will you, of your refined sympathy and perception, discover the pleasure and interest taken in the perfection of it, by the other one who, with me, liked you--and delighted in the kind and courteous attention paid, on your travels, to her pretty fancy and expressed wish--
She loved the wonderful bird you sent with such happy care from the distant land!
And when she went--alone, because I was unfit to go too--the strange wild dainty creature stood uplifted on the topmost perch, and sang and sang--as it had never sung before!--A song of the Sun--and of joy--and of my despair!--Loud and ringing clear from the skies!--and louder! Peal after peal--until it became a marvel the tiny beast, torn by such glorious voice, should live!--
And suddenly it was made known to me that, in this mysterious magpie waif from beyond the temples of India, the spirit of my beautiful Lady had lingered on its way--and the song was her song of love--and courage--and command that the work, in which she had taken her part, should be complete--and so was her farewell!--
I have kept her house--in its freshness and rare beauty--as she had made it--and from time to time, I go to miss her in it--And, in my wanderings, I may come--who knows? to you--as we both had meant to do!
J McNeill Whistler

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