The Letters of James McNeill Whistler to George A. Lucas

* For permission to publish these letters I wish to thank the Maryland Institute, Baltimore, owner of the material, and the University of Glasgow, holder of the copyright. I am indebted also to the Baltimore Museum of Art for allowing me access to manuscript material in the Lucas Collection, and to the Walters Art Gallery for permitting me to study and quote from the Lucas diaries.

Abstract

The following letters are part of an important body of unpublished manuscript material in the George A. Lucas Collection in Baltimore.¹ They were written by James McNeill Whistler and two of his female companions between the years 1862 and 1886² to George A. Lucas, a man of extraordinary accomplishments all but forgotten by writers of the standard works on Western European art and collecting during the last century. Even within the extensive Whistler bibliography Lucas is only rarely mentioned. Yet, as these letters reveal, there were times when he played an important role in Whistler's life; and though it may be questionable that he directly influenced Whistler's art in any significant way, it is clear that his interest, assistance, and friendship exerted at times a direct influence on the course of Whistler's career.