To which Whistler immediately replied:
“110 Rue du Bac, Paris, February 14.
“My Dear Sir William: I have your valentine. You really are magnificent, and have scored all round.
“I can only hope that the little picture will prove even slightly worthy of all of us, and I rely on Lady Eden’s amiable promise to let me add the few last touches we know of. She has been so courageous and kind all along in doing her part.
“With best wishes again for your journey,
“Very faithfully,
“J. McNeill Whistler.”
From the legal point of view Whistler made the mistake of not immediately returning the check for one hundred guineas, and the additional mistake of exhibiting the picture in the Salon of the Champ de Mars in the spring of 1894, as No. 1187, under the title of “Brown and Gold. Portrait of Lady E——.”
But ultimately the one hundred guineas were returned, and the baronet brought suit to secure the possession of the picture.
Whistler would have permitted himself to be drawn-and-quartered before Sir William Eden should have any work of his. He felt, and most justly, that a work which had been begun by him, first, to oblige others, and secondly, as a labor of love, had been placed upon a commercial footing of the lowest level. He felt that there had been no real desire to have one of his pictures on account of its artistic merit, but that there had been an attempt to secure something of commercial value for one-third its market price.
The episode of the “valentine,” truly ingeniously devised, completely changed the relations between the parties. He painted out the little portrait, substituted another head, and stood ready to return the hundred guineas and to pay whatever damages the court might award the plaintiff; but under no circumstances should the baronet have the picture.