328 Mickle Street
Camden Feb: 20 '86
Dear Sir1
Yours of 19th rec'd —Yes, Monday will suit me—will be ready for you by 10 1/2 a
m—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
John White Alexander
(1856–1915) was an American painter and illustrator, well known for his
portraits of famous Americans including Oliver Wendell Holmes and John
Burroughs, as well as Whitman, whose portrait he worked on from 1886 to
1889.
Notes
- 1. For three days beginning
on Monday, February 22, 1886, Whitman sat for a portrait by Alexander. On April 17, 1891, Alexander informed Whitman that one
of the poet's admirers had purchased and presented the painting to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art: "I am delighted to have been the means of giving to
future generations a portrait of you that is certainly one of my best works"
(Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of
Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). The
naturalist John Burroughs, however, termed the portrait "a Bostonese
Whitman—an emasculated Whitman—failing to show his power and
ruggedness" (Clara Barrus, Whitman and
Burroughs—Comrades [Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931],
261). Whitman himself was not impressed (Horace Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, May 10, 1888 and Friday, June 8, 1888). [back]