Bad Faith

"Bad Faith"

Joseph Pennell charged that France, by not hanging Whistler's Mother in the Louvre (TIME, Jan. 21), has broken her promise to the dead artist.

According to Pennell, the picture, known as Arrangement in Gray and Black, was offered in America for $1,000 but found no buyer. Finally Whistler accepted the Legion of Honor, $620 in cash, and a promise that the picture would hang in the Louvre ten years after his death.

"I have seen letters," said Pennell, "which mentioned the agreement made by Clemenceau. There was no doubt in Whistler's mind at the time he died that the picture would go to the Louvre."