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diff --git a/24650.txt b/24650.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e21404a --- /dev/null +++ b/24650.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8909 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, by James +McNeill Whistler + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies + + +Author: James McNeill Whistler + + + +Release Date: February 19, 2008 [eBook #24650] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Christine P. Travers, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 24650-h.htm or 24650-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/5/24650/24650-h/24650-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/5/24650/24650-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. All other + inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's + spelling has been retained. + + Page 170: The end punctuation of "What means this affectation of + _naivete_." has been changed to "What means this affectation of + _naivete_?". + + All illustrations are sketches of (possibly) Butterflies. + + + + + +THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES + +by + +JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER + +[Illustration] + +THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES + +[Illustration] + +_Chelsea_ + + + + +_AN EXTRAORDINARY PIRATICAL PLOT_ + + + [Sidenote: _"American Register," Paris, March 8, 1890._] + +_A most curiously well-concocted piratical scheme to publish, without +his knowledge or consent, a complete collection of Mr. Whistler's +writings, letters, pamphlets, lectures, &c., has been nipped in the +bud on the very eve of its accomplishment. It appears that the book +was actually in type and ready for issue, but the plan was to bring +out the work simultaneously in England and America. This caused delay, +the plates having to be shipped to New York, and the strain of secrecy +upon the conspirators during the interval would seem to have been too +great. In any case indications of surrounding mystery, quite +sufficient to arouse Mr. Whistler's attention, brought about his rapid +action. Messrs. Lewis and Lewis were instructed to take out immediate +injunction against the publication in both England and America, and +this information, at once cabled across, warning all publishers in the +United States, exploded the plot, effectually frustrating the +elaborate machinations of those engaged in it._ + + + + +_SEIZURE OF MR WHISTLER'S PIRATED WRITINGS_ + + + [Sidenote: _"New York Herald," London Edition, March 23, + 1890._] + +_This pirated collection of letters, writings, &c., to whose +frustrated publication in this country and America we have already +alluded, was seized in Antwerp, at the printers', on Friday last--the +very day of its contracted delivery. The persistent and really +desperate speculator in this volume of difficult birth, baffled in his +attempt to produce it in London and New York had been tracked to +Antwerp by Messrs. Lewis and Lewis; and he was finally brought down by +Maitre Maeterlinck, the distinguished lawyer of that city._ + + + + +_THE EXPLODED PLOT_ + + + [Sidenote: _"Pall Mall Gazette," March 27, 1890._] + +_With regard to this matter, to which we have already alluded on a +previous occasion, Messrs. Lewis and Lewis have received the following +letter from Messrs. Field and Tuer, of the Leadenhall Press, dated +March 25, 1890:--_ + +_"We have seen the paragraph in yesterday's 'Pall Mall Gazette' +relating to the publication of Mr. Whistler's letters. You may like to +know that we recently put into type for a certain person a series of +Mr. Whistlers letters and other matter, taking it for granted that Mr. +Whistler had given permission. Quite recently, however, and +fortunately in time to stop the work being printed, we were told that +Mr. Whistler objected to his letters being published. We then sent for +the person in question, and told him that until he obtained Mr. +Whistler's sanction we declined to proceed further with the work, +which, we may tell you, is finished and cast ready for printing, and +the type distributed. From the time of this interview we have not seen +or heard from the person in question, and there the matter rests."_ + + + + +_MR. WHISTLER'S PAPER HUNT_ + + + [Sidenote: _"Sunday Times," March 30, 1890._] + +_The fruitless attempt to publish without his consent, or rather in +spite of his opposition, the collected writings of Mr. Whistler has +developed into a species of chase from press to press, and from +country to country. With an extraordinary fatality, the unfortunate +fugitive has been invariably allowed to reach the very verge of +achievement before he was surprised by the long arm of Messrs. Lewis +and Lewis. Each defeat has been consequently attended with infinite +loss of labour, material and money. Our readers have been told how the +London venture came to nought, and how it was frustrated in America. +The venue was then changed, and Belgium, as a neutral ground, was +supposed possible; but here again, on the very day of its delivery, +the edition of 2000 vols. was seized by M. le Procureur du Roi, and +under the nose of the astounded and discomfited speculator, the packed +and corded bales, of which he was about to take possession, were +carried off in the Government van! The upshot of the untiring efforts +of this persistent adventurer at length results in furnishing Mr. +Whistler with the first and only copy of this curious work, which was +certainly anything but the intention of its compiler, who clearly, +judging from its contents, had reserved for him an unpleasing if not +crushing surprise!_ + + + + +_A GREAT LITERARY CURIOSITY_ + + + [Sidenote: _"Pall Mall Gazette." March 1890._] + +_I have to-day seen the printed book itself of the Collected Writings +of Mr. Whistler, whose publication has proved so comically impossible. +The style of the preface and accessory comments is in the worst style +of Western editorship; while the disastrous effect of Mr. Whistler's +literature upon the one who has burned his fingers with it, is +amusingly shown._ + +_In the index occur such well-known names as Mr. J. C. Horsley, R.A., +Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Linley Sambourne, Mr. Swinburne, Tom +Taylor, Mr. Frith, and Rossetti. The famous catalogue of the "Second +Exhibition of Venice Etchings, February 19, 1883," in which Mr. +Whistler quotes the critics, is also given._ + + + + +_A LAST EFFORT_ + + + [Sidenote: _"Pall Mall Gazette," April 9, 1890._] + +_We hear that a third attempt has been made to produce the pirated +copy of Mr. Whistler's collected writings. Messrs. Lewis and Lewis +have at once taken legal steps to stop the edition (printed in Paris) +at the Customs. A cablegram has been received by Mr. Whistler's +solicitors stating that Messrs. Stokes's name has been affixed to the +title-page of the pirated book without the sanction of those +publishers._ + + + + + _THE GENTLE ART + OF + MAKING ENEMIES_ + + + _AS PLEASINGLY EXEMPLIFIED + IN MANY INSTANCES, WHEREIN THE SERIOUS ONES + OF THIS EARTH, CAREFULLY EXASPERATED, HAVE + BEEN PRETTILY SPURRED ON TO UNSEEMLINESS + AND INDISCRETION, WHILE OVERCOME BY AN + UNDUE SENSE OF RIGHT_ + +[Illustration] + + +_A NEW EDITION_ + +_LONDON MDCCCXCII_ + +_WILLIAM HEINEMANN_ + + + + +_Rights of Translation and +Reproduction reserved._ + + + + +[Illustration] + + _To + The rare Few, who, early in Life, + have rid Themselves of the Friendship + of the Many, these pathetic Papers + are inscribed_ + + + + +_"MESSIEURS LES ENNEMIS!"_ + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Prologue_ + + + [Sidenote: Professor John Ruskin in _Fors Clavigera_, + July 2, 1877.] + +"For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for the protection of the +purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into +the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly +approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, +much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a +coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the +public's face." + + JOHN RUSKIN. + + + + +_The Action_ + + + [Sidenote: Lawsuit for Libel against Mr. Ruskin Nov. 15, + 1878.] + +In the Court of Exchequer Division on Monday, before Baron Huddleston +and a special jury, the case of Whistler _v._ Ruskin came on for +hearing. In this action the plaintiff claimed L1000 damages. + +Mr. Serjeant Parry and Mr. Petheram appeared for the plaintiff; and +the Attorney-General and Mr. Bowen represented the defendant. + +Mr. SERJEANT PARRY, in opening the case on behalf of the plaintiff, +said that Mr. Whistler had followed the profession of an artist for +many years, both in this and other countries. Mr. Ruskin, as would be +probably known to the gentlemen of the jury, held perhaps the highest +position in Europe and America as an art critic, and some of his works +were, he might say, destined to immortality. He was, in fact, a +gentleman of the highest reputation. In the July number of _Fors +Clavigera_ there appeared passages in which Mr. Ruskin criticised what +he called "the modern school," and then followed the paragraph of +which Mr. Whistler now complained, and which was: "For Mr. Whistler's +own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts +Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the +ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of +wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence +before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred +guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." That +passage, no doubt, had been read by thousands, and so it had gone +forth to the world that Mr. Whistler was an ill-educated man, an +impostor, a cockney pretender, and an impudent coxcomb. + +Mr. WHISTLER, cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL, said: "I have +sent pictures to the Academy which have not been received. I believe +that is the experience of all artists.... The nocturne in black and +gold is a night piece, and represents the fireworks at Cremorne." + +"Not a view of Cremorne?" + +"If it were called a view of Cremorne, it would certainly bring about +nothing but disappointment on the part of the beholders. (_Laughter._) +It is an artistic arrangement. It was marked two hundred guineas." + +"Is not that what we, who are not artists, would call a stiffish +price?" + +"I think it very likely that that may be so." + +"But artists always give good value for their money, don't they?" + +"I am glad to hear that so well established. (_A laugh._) I do not +know Mr. Ruskin, or that he holds the view that a picture should only +be exhibited when it is finished, when nothing can be done to improve +it, but that is a correct view; the arrangement in black and gold was +a finished picture, I did not intend to do anything more to it." + +"Now, Mr. Whistler. Can you tell me how long it took you to knock off +that nocturne?" + +... "I beg your pardon?" (_Laughter._) + +"Oh! I am afraid that I am using a term that applies rather perhaps to +my own work. I should have said, How long did you take to paint that +picture?" + +"Oh, no! permit me, I am too greatly flattered to think that you +apply, to work of mine, any term that you are in the habit of using +with reference to your own. Let us say then how long did I take +to--'knock off,' I think that is it--to knock off that nocturne; well, +as well as I remember, about a day." + +"Only a day?" + +"Well, I won't be quite positive; I may have still put a few more +touches to it the next day if the painting were not dry. I had +better say then, that I was two days at work on it." + +"Oh, two days! The labour of two days, then, is that for which you ask +two hundred guineas!" + +"No;--I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime." (_Applause._) + +"You have been told that your pictures exhibit some eccentricities?" + +"Yes; often." (_Laughter._) + +"You send them to the galleries to incite the admiration of the +public?" + +"That would be such vast absurdity on my part, that I don't think I +could." (_Laughter._) + +"You know that many critics entirely disagree with your views as to +these pictures?" + +"It would be beyond me to agree with the critics." + +"You don't approve of criticism then?" + +"I should not disapprove in any way of technical criticism by a man +whose whole life is passed in the practice of the science which he +criticises; but for the opinion of a man whose life is not so passed I +would have as little regard as you would, if he expressed an opinion +on law." + +"You expect to be criticised?" + +"Yes; certainly. And I do not expect to be affected by it, until +it becomes a case of this kind. It is not only when criticism is +inimical that I object to it, but also when it is incompetent. I hold +that none but an artist can be a competent critic." + +"You put your pictures upon the garden wall, Mr. Whistler, or hang +them on the clothes line, don't you--to mellow?" + +"I do not understand." + +"Do you not put your paintings out into the garden?" + +"Oh! I understand now. I thought, at first, that you were perhaps +again using a term that you are accustomed to yourself. Yes; I +certainly do put the canvases into the garden that they may dry in the +open air while I am painting, but I should be sorry to see them +'mellowed.'" + +"Why do you call Mr. Irving 'an arrangement in black'?" (_Laughter._) + +Mr. BARON HUDDLESTON: "It is the picture and not Mr. Irving that is +the arrangement." + +A discussion ensued as to the inspection of the pictures, and +incidentally Baron Huddleston remarked that a critic must be competent +to form an opinion, and bold enough to express that opinion in strong +terms if necessary. + +The ATTORNEY-GENERAL complained that no answer was given to a +written application by the defendant's solicitors for leave to inspect +the pictures which the plaintiff had been called upon to produce at +the trial. The WITNESS replied that Mr. Arthur Severn had been to his +studio to inspect the paintings, on behalf of the defendant, for the +purpose of passing his final judgment upon them and settling that +question for ever. + +Cross-examination continued: "What was the subject of the nocturne in +blue and silver belonging to Mr. Grahame?" + +"A moonlight effect on the river near old Battersea Bridge." + +"What has become of the nocturne in black and gold?" + +"I believe it is before you." (_Laughter._) + +The picture called the nocturne in blue and silver, was now produced +in Court. + +"That is Mr. Grahame's picture. It represents Battersea Bridge by +moonlight." + +BARON HUDDLESTON: "Which part of the picture is the bridge?" +(_Laughter._) + +His Lordship earnestly rebuked those who laughed. And witness +explained to his Lordship the composition of the picture. + +"Do you say that this is a correct representation of Battersea +Bridge?" + +"I did not intend it to be a 'correct' portrait of the bridge. It is +only a moonlight scene and the pier in the centre of the picture may +not be like the piers at Battersea Bridge as you know them in broad +daylight. As to what the picture represents that depends upon who +looks at it. To some persons it may represent all that is intended; to +others it may represent nothing." + +"The prevailing colour is blue?" + +"Perhaps." + +"Are those figures on the top of the bridge intended for people?" + +"They are just what you like." + +"Is that a barge beneath?" + +"Yes. I am very much encouraged at your perceiving that. My whole +scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour." + +"What is that gold-coloured mark on the right of the picture like a +cascade?" + +"The 'cascade of gold' is a firework." + +A second nocturne in blue and silver was then produced. + +WITNESS: "That represents another moonlight scene on the Thames +looking up Battersea Reach. I completed the mass of the picture in one +day." + +The Court then adjourned. During the interval the jury visited the +Probate Court to view the pictures which had been collected in the +Westminster Palace Hotel. + +After the Court had re-assembled the "Nocturne in Black and Gold" was +again produced, and Mr. WHISTLER was further cross-examined by the +ATTORNEY-GENERAL: "The picture represents a distant view of Cremorne +with a falling rocket and other fireworks. It occupied two days, and +is a finished picture. The black monogram on the frame was placed in +its position with reference to the proper decorative balance of the +whole." + +"You have made the study of Art your study of a lifetime. Now, do you +think that anybody looking at that picture might fairly come to the +conclusion that it had no peculiar beauty?" + +"I have strong evidence that Mr. Ruskin did come to that conclusion." + +"Do you think it fair that Mr. Ruskin should come to that conclusion?" + +"What might be fair to Mr. Ruskin I cannot answer." + +"Then you mean, Mr. Whistler, that the initiated in technical matters +might have no difficulty in understanding your work. But do you think +now that you could make _me_ see the beauty of that picture?" + +The witness then paused, and examining attentively the +Attorney-General's face and looking at the picture alternately, said, +after apparently giving the subject much thought, while the Court +waited in silence for his answer: + +"No! Do you know I fear it would be as hopeless as for the musician to +pour his notes into the ear of a deaf man. (_Laughter._) + +"I offer the picture, which I have conscientiously painted, as being +worth two hundred guineas. I have known unbiassed people express the +opinion that it represents fireworks in a night-scene. I would not +complain of any person who might simply take a different view." + +The Court then adjourned. + +The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, in resuming his address on behalf of the +defendant on Tuesday, said he hoped to convince the jury, before his +case closed, that Mr. Ruskin's criticism upon the plaintiff's pictures +was perfectly fair and _bona fide_;[1] and that, however severe it +might be, there was nothing that could reasonably be complained of.... +Let them examine the nocturne in blue and silver, said to represent +Battersea Bridge. What was that structure in the middle? Was it a +telescope or a fire-escape? Was it like Battersea Bridge? What were +the figures at the top of the bridge? And if they were horses and +carts, how in the name of fortune were they to get off? Now, about +these pictures, if the plaintiff's argument was to avail, they must +not venture publicly to express an opinion, or they would have brought +against them an action for damages. + + [Note 1: "Enter now the great room with the Veronese + at the end of it, for which the painter (_quite + rightly_) was summoned before the Inquisition of + State."--Prof. JOHN RUSKIN: _Guide to Principal + Pictures, Academy of Fine Arts, Venice_.] + +After all, Critics had their uses.[2] He should like to know what +would become of Poetry, of Politics, of Painting, if Critics were to +be extinguished? Every Painter struggled to obtain fame. + + [Note 2: "I have now given up ten years of my life + to the single purpose of enabling myself to judge + rightly of art ... earnestly desiring to ascertain, and + _to be able to teach_, the truth respecting art; also + knowing that this truth was _by time and labour_ + definitely ascertainable."--Prof. RUSKIN: _Modern + Painters_, Vol. III. + + "Thirdly, that TRUTHS OF COLOUR ARE THE LEAST IMPORTANT + OF ALL TRUTHS."--Mr. RUSKIN, Prof, of Art: _Modern + Painters_, Vol. I. Chap. V. + + "And that colour is indeed a most unimportant + characteristic of objects, would be further evident on + the slightest consideration. The colour of plants is + constantly changing with the season ... but the nature + and essence of the thing are independent of these + changes. An oak is an oak, whether green with spring, or + red with winter; a dahlia is a dahlia, whether it be + yellow or crimson; and if some monster hunting florist + should ever frighten the flower blue, still it will be a + dahlia; but not so if the same arbitrary changes could + be effected in its form. Let the roughness of the bark + and the angles of the boughs be smoothed or diminished, + and the oak ceases to be an oak; but let it retain its + universal structure and outward form, and though its + leaves grow white, or pink, or blue, or tri-colour, it + would be a white oak, or a pink oak, or a republican + oak, but an oak still."--JOHN RUSKIN, Esq., M.A., + Teacher and Slade Prof. of Fine Arts: _Modern + Painters_.] + +No Artist could obtain fame, except through criticism.[3] + + [Note 3: "Canaletto, had he been a great painter, + might have cast his reflections wherever he chose ... + but he is a little and a bad painter."--Mr. RUSKIN, Art + Critic. + + "I repeat there is nothing but the work of Prout which + is true, living, or right in its general impression, and + nothing, therefore, so inexhaustively _agreeable_" + (sic).--J. RUSKIN, Art Professor: _Modern Painters_.] + +... As to these pictures, they could only come to the conclusion that +they were strange fantastical conceits, not worthy to be called works +of Art. + +... Coming to the libel, the Attorney-General said it had been +contended that Mr. Ruskin was not justified in interfering with a +man's livelihood. But why not? Then it was said, "Oh! you have +ridiculed Mr. Whistler's pictures." If Mr. Whistler disliked ridicule, +he should not have subjected himself to it by exhibiting publicly such +productions. If a man thought a picture was a daub[4] he had a right +to say so, without subjecting himself to a risk of an action. + + [Note 4: "Now it is evident that in Rembrandt's + system, while the contrasts are not more right than with + Veronese, the colours are all wrong from beginning to + end."--JOHN RUSKIN, Art Authority.] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "In conduct and in conversation, + It did a sinner good to hear + Him deal in ratiocination!" + + [Illustration]] + +He would not be able to call Mr. Ruskin, as he was far too ill to +attend; but, if he had been able to appear, he would have given +his opinion of Mr. Whistler's work in the witness-box. + +He had the highest appreciation for _completed pictures_;[5] and he +required from an Artist that he should possess something more than a +few flashes of genius![6] + + [Note 5: "I was pleased by a little unpretending + modern German picture at Dusseldorf, by Bosch, + representing a boy carving a model of his sheep dog in + wood."--J. RUSKIN: _Modern Painters_.] + + [Note 6: "I have just said that every class of rock, + earth and cloud must be known by the painter with + geologic and meteorologic accuracy."--Slade Prof. + RUSKIN: _Modern Painters_.] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself + overwise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself!" + [Illustration]] + +Mr. Ruskin entertaining those views, it was not wonderful that his +attention should be attracted to Mr. Whistler's pictures. He subjected +the pictures, if they chose,[7] to ridicule and contempt. Then Mr. +Ruskin spoke of "the ill-educated[8] conceit of the artist, so nearly +approaching the action of imposture." If his pictures were mere +extravagances, how could it redound to the credit of Mr. Whistler to +send them to the Grosvenor Gallery to be exhibited? Some artistic +gentleman from Manchester, Leeds, or Sheffield might perhaps be +induced to buy one of the pictures because it was a Whistler, and what +Mr. Ruskin meant was that he might better have remained in Manchester, +Sheffield, or Leeds, with his money in his pocket. It was said that +the term "ill-educated conceit" ought never to have been applied to +Mr. Whistler, who had devoted the whole of his life to educating +himself in Art;[9] but Mr. Ruskin's views[10] as to his success did +not accord with those of Mr. Whistler. The libel complained of said +also, "I never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for +flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." What was a coxcomb? +He had looked the word up, and found that it came from the old idea of +the licensed jester who wore a cap and bells with a cock's comb in it, +who went about making jests for the amusement of his master and +family. If that were the true definition, then Mr. Whistler should not +complain, because his pictures had afforded a most amusing jest! _He +did not know when so much amusement had been afforded to the[11] +British Public as by Mr. Whistler's pictures._ He had now finished. +Mr. Ruskin had lived a long life without being attacked, and no one +had attempted to control his pen through the medium of a jury. Mr. +Ruskin said, through him, as his counsel, that he did not retract one +syllable of his criticism, believing it was right. Of course, if they +found a verdict against Mr. Ruskin, he would have to cease +writing,[12] but it would be an evil day for Art, in this country, +when Mr. Ruskin would be prevented from indulging in legitimate and +proper criticism, by pointing out what was beautiful and what was +not.[13] + + [Note 7: "Vulgarity, dulness, or impiety will indeed + always express themselves through art, in brown and + gray, as in Rembrandt."--Prof. JOHN RUSKIN: _Modern + Painters_.] + + [Note 8: "It is physically impossible, for instance, + rightly to draw certain forms of the upper clouds with a + brush; nothing will do it but the palette knife with + loaded white after the blue ground is prepared."--JOHN + RUSKIN, Prof. of Painting.] + + [Note 9: "And thus we are guided, almost forced, by + the laws of nature, to do right in art. Had granite been + white and marble speckled (and why should this not have + been, but by the definite Divine appointment for the + good of man?), the huge figures of the Egyptian would + have been as oppressive to the sight as cliffs of snow, + and the Venus de Medicis would have looked like some + exquisitely graceful species of frog."--Slade Professor + JOHN RUSKIN.] + + [Note 10: "The principal object in the foreground of + Turner's 'Building of Carthage' is a group of children + sailing toy boats. The exquisite choice of this incident + ... is quite as appreciable when it is told, as when it + is seen--it has nothing to do with the technicalities of + painting; ... such a thought as this is something far + above all art."--JOHN RUSKIN, Art Professor: _Modern + Painters_.] + + [Note 11: "It is especially to be remembered that + drawings of this simple character [Prout's and W. + Hunt's] were made for these same middle classes, + exclusively; and even for the second order of middle + classes, more accurately expressed by the term + 'bourgeoisie.' They gave an unquestionable tone of + liberal-mindedness to a suburban villa, and were the + cheerfullest possible decorations for a moderate sized + breakfast parlour, opening on a nicely mown lawn."--JOHN + RUSKIN, Art Professor: _Notes on S. Prout and W. Hunt_.] + + [Note 12: "It seems to me, and seemed always + probable, that I might have done much more good in some + other way."--Prof. JOHN RUSKIN, Art Teacher: _Modern + Painters_, Vol. V.] + + [Note 13: "Give thorough examination to the + wonderful painting, _as such_, in the great Veronese ... + and then, for contrast with its reckless power, and for + final image to be remembered of sweet Italian art in its + earnestness ... the Beata Catherine Vigri's St. Ursula, + ... I will only say in closing, as I said of the Vicar's + picture in beginning, that it would be well if any of us + could do such things nowadays--and more especially if + our vicars and young ladies could."--JOHN RUSKIN, Prof. + of Fine Art: _Guide to Principal Pictures_, _Academy of + Fine Arts_, _Venice_.] + +Evidence was then called on behalf of the defendant. Witnesses for the +defendant, Messrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Frith, and Tom Taylor. + +Mr. EDWARD BURNE-JONES called. + +Mr. BOWEN, by way of presenting him properly to the consideration +of the Court, proceeded to read extracts of eulogistic appreciation of +this artist from the defendant's own writings. + + [Sidenote: "Of the estimate which shall be formed of Mr. + Jones's own work.... + + "His work, first, is simply the only art-work at present + produced in England which will be received by the future + as 'classic' in its kind--the best that has been or + could be."--Prof. RUSKIN: _Fors Clavigera_, July 2, + 1877.] + +The examination of witness then commenced; and in answer to Mr. BOWEN, +Mr. JONES said: "I am a painter, and have devoted about twenty years +to the study. I have painted various works, including the 'Days of +Creation' and 'Venus's Mirror,' both of which were exhibited at the +Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. I have also exhibited 'Deferentia,' +'Fides,' 'St. George,' and 'Sybil.' I have one work, 'Merlin and +Vivian,' now being exhibited in Paris. In my opinion complete finish +ought to be the object of all artists. A picture ought not to fall +short of what has been for ages considered complete finish." + +Mr. BOWEN: "Do you see any art quality in that nocturne, Mr. Jones?" + +Mr. JONES: "Yes ... I must speak the truth, you know".... (_Emotion._) + +Mr. BOWEN: ... "Yes. Well, Mr. Jones, what quality do you see in it?" + +Mr. JONES: "Colour. It has fine colour, and atmosphere." + +Mr. BOWEN: "Ah. Well, do you consider detail and composition essential +to a work of Art?" + +Mr. JONES: "Most certainly I do." + +Mr. BOWEN: "Then what detail and composition do you find in this +nocturne?" + +Mr. JONES: "Absolutely none."[14] + + [Note 14: _REFLECTION:_ + + There is a cunning condition of mind that _requires to + know_. On the Stock Exchange this insures safe + investment. In the painting trade this would induce + certain picture-makers to cross the river at noon, in a + boat, before negotiating a Nocturne, in order to make + sure of detail on the bank, that honestly the purchaser + might exact, and out of which he might have been tricked + by the Night! + + [Illustration]] + +Mr. BOWEN: "Do you think two hundred guineas a large price for that +picture?" + +Mr. JONES: "Yes. When you think of the amount of earnest work done for +a smaller sum." + +Examination continued: "Does it show the finish of a complete work of +art?" + + [Sidenote: "The action of imagination of the highest + power in Burne Jones, under the conditions of + scholarship, of social beauty, and of social distress, + which necessarily aid, thwart, and colour it in the + nineteenth century, are alone in art,--unrivalled in + their kind; and I _know_ that these will be immortal, as + the best things the mid-nineteenth century in England + could do, in such true relations as it had, through all + confusion, retained with the paternal and everlasting + Art of the world."--JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.: _Fors + Clavigera_, July 2, 1877.] + +"Not in any sense whatever. The picture representing a night scene on +Battersea Bridge, is good in colour, but bewildering in form; and it +has no composition and detail. A day or a day and a half seems a +reasonable time within which to paint it. It shows no finish--it is +simply a sketch. The nocturne in black and gold has not the merit of +the other two pictures, and it would be impossible to call it a +serious work of art. Mr. Whistler's picture is only one of the +thousand failures to paint night. The picture is not worth two hundred +guineas." + +Mr. BOWEN here proposed to ask the witness to look at a picture of +Titian,[15] in order to show what finish was.[16] + + [Note 15: "I believe the world may see another + Titian, and another Raffaelle, before it sees another + Rubens."--Mr. RUSKIN.] + + [Note 16: ... "The Butcher's Dog, in the corner of + Mr. Mulready's 'Butt,' displays, perhaps, the most + wonderful, because the most dignified, finish ... and + assuredly the most perfect unity of drawing and colour + which the entire range of ancient and modern art can + exhibit. Albert Durer is, indeed, the only rival who + might be suggested."--JOHN RUSKIN Slade Professor of + Art: _Modern Painters_.] + +Mr. SERJEANT PARRY objected. + +Mr. BARON HUDDLESTON: "You will have to prove that it is a Titian." + +Mr. BOWEN: "I shall be able to do that." + +Mr. BARON HUDDLESTON: "That can only be by repute. I do not want +to raise a laugh, but there is a well-known case of 'an undoubted' +Titian being purchased with a view to enabling students and others to +find out how to produce his wonderful colours. With that object the +picture was rubbed down, and they found a red surface, beneath which +they thought was the secret, but on continuing the rubbing they +discovered a full length portrait of George III. in uniform!" + +The witness was then asked to look at the picture, and he said: "It is +a portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti, and I believe it is a real Titian. +It shows finish. It is a very perfect sample of the highest finish of +ancient art.[17] The flesh is perfect, the modelling of the face is +round and good. That is an 'arrangement in flesh and blood!'" + + [Note 17: ... "I feel entitled to point out that the + picture by Titian, produced in the case of Whistler _v._ + Ruskin, is an early specimen of that master, and does + not represent adequately the style and qualities which + have obtained for him his great reputation--one obvious + point of difference between this and his more mature + work being the far greater amount of finish--I do not + say completeness--exhibited in it ... and as the picture + was brought forward with a view to inform the jury as to + the nature of the work of the greatest painter, and more + especially as to the high finish introduced in it, it is + evident that it was calculated to produce an erroneous + impression on their minds, if indeed any one present at + the inquiry can hold that those gentlemen were in any + way fitted to understand the issues raised therein.--I + am, Sir, your obedient servant, + + A. MOORE. + + "Nov. 28." + Extract of a letter to the Editor of the _Echo_.] + +The witness having pointed out the excellences of that portrait, said: +"I think Mr. Whistler had great powers at first, which he has not +since justified. He has evaded the difficulties of his art, because +the difficulty of an artist increases every day of his professional +life." + +Cross-examined: "What is the value of this picture of Titian?"--"That +is a mere accident of the saleroom." + +"Is it worth one thousand guineas?"--"It would be worth many +thousands to me." + + [Sidenote: "It was just a toss up whether I became an + Artist or an Auctioneer."--W. P. FRITH, R.A. + + _REFLECTION:_ + + He must have tossed up. + + [Illustration]] + +Mr. FRITH was then examined: "I am an R.A.; and have devoted my life +to painting. I am a member of the Academies of various countries. I am +the author of the 'Railway Station,' 'Derby Day,' and 'Rake's +Progress.' I have seen Mr. Whistler's pictures, and in my opinion they +are not serious works of art. The nocturne in black and gold is not a +serious work to me. I cannot see anything of the true representation +of water and atmosphere in the painting of 'Battersea Bridge.' There +is a pretty colour which pleases the eye, but there is nothing more. +To my thinking, the description of moonlight is not true. The picture +is not worth two hundred guineas. Composition and detail are most +important matters in a picture. In our profession men of equal merit +differ as to the character of a picture. One may blame, while another +praises, a work. I have not exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. I have +read Mr. Ruskin's works." + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + A decidedly honest man--I have not heard of him since. + + [Illustration]] + +Mr. Frith here got down. + +Mr. TOM TAYLOR--Poor Law Commissioner, Editor of _Punch_, and so +forth--and so forth:--"I am an art critic of long standing. I have +been engaged in this capacity by the _Times_, and other journals, for +the last twenty years. I edited the 'Life of Reynolds,' and 'Haydon.' +I have _always_ studied art. I have seen these pictures of Mr. +Whistler's when they were exhibited at the Dudley and the Grosvenor +Galleries. The 'Nocturne' in black and gold I do not think a serious +work of art." The witness here took from the pockets of his overcoat +copies of the _Times_, and with the permission of the Court, read +again with unction his own criticism, to every word of which he said +he still adhered. "All Mr. Whistler's work is unfinished. It is +sketchy. He, no doubt, possesses artistic qualities, and he has got +appreciation of qualities of tone, but he is not complete, and all his +works are in the nature of sketching. I have expressed, and still +adhere to the opinion, that these pictures only come 'one step nearer +pictures than a delicately tinted wall-paper.'" + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + To perceive in Ruskin's army Tom Taylor, his + champion--whose opinion he prizes--Mr. Frith, his + ideal--was gratifying. But to sit and look at Mr. Burne + Jones, in common cause with Tom Taylor--whom he esteems, + and Mr. Frith--whom he respects--conscientiously + appraising the work of a _confrere_--was a privilege!! + + [Illustration]] + +This ended the case for the defendant. + + +Verdict for plaintiff. Damages one farthing. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Professor Ruskin's Group_ + + +My dear Sambourne--I know I shall be only charmed, as I always am, by +your work, and if I am myself its subject, I shall only be flattered +in addition. + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 11, 1878.] + + [Sidenote: A pleasant _resume_ of the situation--in + reply to Mr. Sambourne's expressed hope that his + historical cartoon in _Punch_ might not offend.] + +_Punch_ in person sat upon me in the box; why should not the most +subtle of his staff have a shot? Moreover, whatever delicacy and +refinement Tom Taylor may still have left in his pocket (from which, +in Court, he drew his ammunition) I doubt not he will urge you to use, +that it may not be wasted. Meanwhile you must not throw away sentiment +upon what you call "this trying time." + +To have brought about an "Arrangement in Frith, Jones, _Punch_ and +Ruskin, with a touch of Titian," is a joy! and in itself sufficient to +satisfy even my craving for curious "combinations."--Ever yours, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Whistler v. Ruskin_ + + _ART & ART CRITICS_ + + [Illustration] + +_Chelsea, Dec. 1878._ + + + + +[Illustration] + +_Dedicated to_ + + _ALBERT MOORE_ + + + + +_Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics_ + + +The _fin mot_ and spirit of this matter seems to have been utterly +missed, or perhaps willingly winked at, by the journals in their +comments. Their correspondents have persistently, and not unnaturally +as writers, seen nothing beyond the immediate case in law--viz., the +difference between Mr. Ruskin and myself, culminating in the libel +with a verdict for the plaintiff. + +Now the war, of which the opening skirmish was fought the other day in +Westminster, is really one between the brush and the pen; and involves +literally, as the Attorney-General himself hinted, the absolute +"raison d'etre" of the critic. The cry, on their part, of "Il faut +vivre," I most certainly meet, in this case, with the appropriate +answer, "Je n'en vois pas la necessite." + +Far from me, at that stage of things, to go further into this +discussion than I did, when, cross-examined by Sir John Holker, +I contented myself with the general answer, "that one might admit +criticism when emanating from a man who had passed his whole life in +the science which he attacks." The position of Mr. Ruskin as an art +authority we left quite unassailed during the trial. To have said that +Mr. Ruskin's pose among intelligent men, as other than a _litterateur_ +is false and ridiculous, would have been an invitation to the stake; +and to be burnt alive, or stoned before the verdict, was not what I +came into court for. + +Over and over again did the Attorney-General cry out aloud, in the +agony of his cause, "What is to become of painting if the critics +withhold their lash?" + +As well might he ask what is to become of mathematics under similar +circumstances, were they possible. I maintain that two and two the +mathematician would continue to make four, in spite of the whine of +the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. We are told +that Mr. Ruskin has devoted his long life to art, and as a result--is +"Slade Professor" at Oxford. In the same sentence, we have thus his +position and its worth. It suffices not, Messieurs! a life passed +among pictures makes not a painter--else the policeman in the National +Gallery might assert himself. As well allege that he who lives in a +library must needs die a poet. Let not Mr. Ruskin flatter himself +that more education makes the difference between himself and the +policeman when both stand gazing in the Gallery. + +There they might remain till the end of time; the one decently silent, +the other saying, in good English, many high-sounding empty things, +like the cracking of thorns under a pot--undismayed by the presence of +the Masters with whose names he is sacrilegiously familiar; whose +intentions he interprets, whose vices he discovers with the facility +of the incapable, and whose virtues he descants upon with a verbosity +and flow of language that would, could he hear it, give Titian the +same shock of surprise that was Balaam's, when the first great critic +proffered his opinion. + +This one instance apart, where collapse was immediate, the creature +Critic is of comparatively modern growth--and certainly, in perfect +condition, of recent date. To his completeness go qualities evolved +from the latest lightnesses of to-day--indeed, the _fine fleur_ of his +type is brought forth in Paris, and beside him the Englishman is but +rough-hewn and blundering after all; though not unkindly should one +say it, as reproaching him with inferiority resulting from chances +neglected. + +The truth is, as compared with his brother of the Boulevards, the +Briton was badly begun by nature. + +To take himself seriously is the fate of the humbug at home, and +destruction to the jaunty career of the art critic, whose essence of +success lies in his strong sense of his ephemeral existence, and his +consequent horror of _ennuyer_ing his world--in short, to perceive the +joke of life is rarely given to our people, whilst it forms the +mainspring of the Parisian's _savoir plaire_. The finesse of the +Frenchman, acquired in long loafing and clever _cafe_ cackle--the glib +go and easy assurance of the _petit creve_, combined with the _chic_ +of great habit--the brilliant _blague_ of the ateliers--the aptitude +of their _argot_--the fling of the _Figaro_, and the knack of short +paragraphs, which allows him to print of a picture "C'est bien ecrit!" +and of a subject, "C'est bien dit!"--these are elements of an +_ensemble_ impossible in this island. + +Still, we are "various" in our specimens, and a sense of progress is +noticeable when we look about among them. + +Indications of their period are perceptible, and curiously enough a +similarity is suggested, by their work, between themselves and the +vehicles we might fancy carrying them about to their livelihood. + +Tough old Tom, the busy City 'Bus, with its heavy jolting and many +halts; its steady, sturdy, stodgy continuance on the same old much +worn way, every turning known, and freshness unhoped for; its patient +dreary dulness of daily duty to its cheap company--struggling on to +its end, nevertheless, and pulling up at the Bank! with a flourish +from the driver, and a joke from the cad at the door. + +Then the contributors to the daily papers: so many hansoms bowling +along that the moment may not be lost, and the _a propos_ gone for +ever. The one or two broughams solemnly rolling for reviews, while the +lighter bicycle zigzags irresponsibly in among them for the happy +Halfpennies. + +What a commerce it all is, to be sure! + +No sham in it either!--no "bigod nonsense!" they are all "doing +good"--yes, they all do good to Art. Poor Art! what a sad state the +slut is in, an these gentlemen shall help her. The artist alone, by +the way, is to no purpose, and remains unconsulted; his work is +explained and rectified without him, by the one who was never in +it--but upon whom God, always good, though sometimes careless, has +thrown away the knowledge refused to the author--poor devil! + +The Attorney-General said, "There are some people who would do away +with critics altogether." + +I agree with him, and am of the irrationals he points at--but let +me be clearly understood--the _art_ critic alone would I extinguish. +That writers should destroy writings to the benefit of writing is +reasonable. Who but they shall insist upon beauties of literature, and +discard the demerits of their brother _litterateurs_? In their turn +they will be destroyed by other writers, and the merry game goes on +till truth prevail. Shall the painter then--I foresee the +question--decide upon painting? Shall _he_ be the critic and sole +authority? Aggressive as is this supposition, I fear that, in the +length of time, his assertion alone has established what even the +gentlemen of the quill accept as the canons of art, and recognise as +the masterpieces of work. + +Let work, then, be received in silence, as it was in the days to which +the penmen still point as an era when art was at its apogee. And here +we come upon the oft-repeated apology of the critic for existing at +all, and find how complete is his stultification. He brands himself as +the necessary blister for the health of the painter, and writes that +he may do good to his art. In the same ink he bemoans the decadence +about him, and declares that the best work was done when he was not +there to help it. No! let there be no critics! they are not a +"necessary evil," but an evil quite unnecessary, though an evil +certainly. + +Harm they do, and not good. + +Furnished as they are with the means of furthering their foolishness, +they spread prejudice abroad; and through the papers, at their +service, thousands are warned against the work they have yet to look +upon. + +And here one is tempted to go further, and show the crass idiocy and +impertinence of those whose dicta are printed as law. + +How he of the _Times_[18] has found Velasquez "slovenly in execution, +poor in colour--being little but a combination of neutral greys and +ugly in its forms"--how he grovelled in happiness over a Turner--that +was no Turner at all, as Mr. Ruskin wrote to show--Ruskin! whom he has +since defended. Ah! Messieurs, what our neighbours call "la malice des +choses" was unthought of, and the sarcasm of fate was against you. How +Gerard Dow's broom was an example for the young; and Canaletti and +Paul Veronese are to be swept aside--doubtless with it. How Rembrandt +is coarse, and Carlo Dolci noble--with more of this kind. But what +does it matter? + + [Note 18: June 6, 1874] + +"What does anything matter!" The farce will go on, and its solemnity +adds to the fun. + +Mediocrity flattered at acknowledging mediocrity, and mistaking +mystification for mastery, enters the fog of dilettantism, and, +graduating connoisseur, ends its days in a bewilderment of bric-a-brac +and Brummagem! + +"Taste" has long been confounded with capacity, and accepted as +sufficient qualification for the utterance of judgment in music, +poetry, and painting. Art is joyously received as a matter of opinion; +and that it should be based upon laws as rigid and defined as those of +the known sciences, is a supposition no longer to be tolerated by +modern cultivation. For whereas no polished member of society is at +all affected at admitting himself neither engineer, mathematician, nor +astronomer, and therefore remains willingly discreet and taciturn upon +these subjects, still would he be highly offended were he supposed to +have no voice in what is clearly to him a matter of "Taste"; and so he +becomes of necessity the backer of the critic--the cause and result of +his own ignorance and vanity! The fascination of this pose is too much +for him, and he hails with delight its justification. Modesty and good +sense are revolted at nothing, and the millennium of "Taste" sets in. + +The whole scheme is simple: the galleries are to be thrown open on +Sundays, and the public, dragged from their beer to the British +Museum, are to delight in the Elgin Marbles, and appreciate what +the early Italians have done to elevate their thirsty souls! An inroad +into the laboratory would be looked upon as an intrusion; but before +the triumphs of Art, the expounder is at his ease, and points out the +doctrine that Raphael's results are within the reach of any beholder, +provided he enrol himself with Ruskin or hearken to Colvin in the +provinces. The people are to be educated upon the broad basis of +"Taste," forsooth, and it matters but little what "gentleman and +scholar" undertake the task. + +Eloquence alone shall guide them--and the readiest writer or wordiest +talker is perforce their professor. + +The Observatory at Greenwich under the direction of an Apothecary! The +College of Physicians with Tennyson as President! and we know that +madness is about. But a school of art with an accomplished +_litterateur_ at its head disturbs no one! and is actually what the +world receives as rational, while Ruskin writes for pupils, and Colvin +holds forth at Cambridge. + +Still, quite alone stands Ruskin, whose writing is art, and whose art +is unworthy his writing. To him and his example do we owe the outrage +of proffered assistance from the unscientific--the meddling of the +immodest--the intrusion of the garrulous. Art, that for ages has hewn +its own history in marble, and written its own comments on canvas, +shall it suddenly stand still, and stammer, and wait for wisdom from +the passer-by?--for guidance from the hand that holds neither brush +nor chisel? Out upon the shallow conceit! What greater sarcasm can Mr. +Ruskin pass upon himself than that he preaches to young men what he +cannot perform! Why, unsatisfied with his own conscious power, should +he choose to become the type of incompetence by talking for forty +years of what he has never done! + +Let him resign his present professorship, to fill the chair of Ethics +at the university. As master of English literature, he has a right to +his laurels, while, as the populariser of pictures he remains the +Peter Parley of painting. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Art Critic of the "Times"_ + + + [Sidenote: Mr. Tom Taylor's acknowledgment of + presentation copy of Mr. Whistler's "Art and Art + Critics," with "Sans rancune" inscribed upon fly-leaf by + the author.] + +"Sans rancune," by all means, my dear Whistler; but you should not +have quoted from my article, of June 6th, 1874, on Velasquez, in such +a way as to give exactly the opposite impression to that which the +article, taken as a whole, conveys. + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Jan. 15, 1879.] + +I appreciate and admire Velasquez as entirely, and allow me to say, as +intelligently, as yourself. I have probably seen and studied more of +his work than you have. And I maintain that the article you have +garbled in your quotation gives a fair and adequate account of the +picture it deals with--"_Las Meninas_"--and one which any artist who +knows the picture would, in essentials, subscribe to. + +God help the artists if ever the criticism of pictures falls into the +hands of painters! It would be a case of vivisection all round. + +Your pamphlet is a very natural result of your late disagreeable +legal experiences, though not a very wise one. + +If the critics are not better qualified to deal with the painters than +the painter in your pamphlet shows himself qualified to deal with the +critics, it will be a bad day for art when the hands that have been +trained to the brush lay it aside for the pen.[19] + + [Note 19:!?] + +If you had read my article on Velasquez, I cannot but say that you +have made an unfair use of it, in quoting a detached sentence, which, +read with the context, bears exactly the opposite sense from that you +have quoted it as bearing. + +This is a bad "throw-off" in the critical line; whether it affect "_le +premier litterateur venu_" or yours always, + + TOM TAYLOR. + +P.S.--_As your attack on my article is public, I reserve to myself the +right of giving equal publicity to this letter._ + + LAVENDER SWEEP, + Jan, 6, 1879. + + + + +_The Position_ + + +Dead for a ducat, dead! my dear Tom: and the rattle has reached me by +post. + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Jan. 15, 1879.] + +"_Sans rancune_," say you? Bah! you scream unkind threats and die +badly. + +Why squabble over your little article? You _did_ print what I quote, +you know, Tom; and it is surely unimportant what more you may have +written of the Master. That you should have written anything at all is +your crime. + +No; shrive your naughty soul, and give up Velasquez, and pass your +last days properly in the Home Office. + +Set your house in order with the Government for arrears of time and +paper, and leave vengeance to the Lord, who will forgive my "garbling" +Tom Taylor's writing. + + THE WHITE HOUSE, + Jan. 8, 1879. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Serious Sarcasm_ + + +Pardon me, my dear Whistler, for having taken you _au serieux_ even +for a moment. + +I ought to have remembered that your penning, like your painting, +belongs to the region of "chaff." I will not forget it again; and +meantime remain yours always, + + TOM TAYLOR. + + LAVENDER SWEEP, + Jan. 9, 1879. + + + + +_Final_ + + +Why, my dear old Tom, I never _was_ serious with you, even when you +were among us. Indeed, I killed you quite, as who should say, without +seriousness, "A rat! A rat!" you know, rather cursorily. + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Jan. 15, 1879] + +Chaff, Tom, as in your present state you are beginning to perceive, +was your fate here, and doubtless will be throughout the eternity +before you. With ages at your disposal, this truth will dimly dawn +upon you; and as you look back upon this life, perchance many +situations that you took _au serieux_ (art-critic, who knows? +expounder of Velasquez, and what not) will explain themselves +sadly--chaff! Go back! + + THE WHITE HOUSE, + Jan. 10, 1879. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_"Balaam's Ass"_ + + + [Sidenote: _Vanity Fair_, Jan 11, 1879.] + +Mr. Whistler has written a discord in black and white. It is a strong +saying, excellent in diction, broadly and boldly set down in slashing +words.... + +The point Mr. Whistler raises and enforces is that criticism of +painting other than by painters is monstrous, and not to be +tolerated.... Mr. Ruskin's "high sounding empty things" would, he +says, "give Titian the same shock of surprise that was Balaam's when +the first great critic proffered his opinion." ... The inference ... +is that all the world, competent and incompetent together, must +receive the painter's work in silence, under pain of being classed +with Balaam's ass.... + +If, finding himself ill received or ill understood, he has to say, +"You cannot understand me," he must also say, "I did not understand +myself and you, to whom I speak, sufficiently well to make you +understand me." + +There could be no better illustration of all this than that +Mr. Whistler has suggested of Balaam's ass. _For the Ass was right_, +although, nay, because he was an ass. "What have I done unto thee," +said he, "that thou hast smitten me these three times?" "Because thou +hast mocked me," replies Balaam--Whistler; whereupon the Angel of the +Lord rebukes him and says, "_The ass saw me_," so that Balaam is +constrained to bow his head and fall flat on his face. And thus indeed +it is. The ass sees the Angel of the Lord there where the wise prophet +sees nothing, and, by her seeing, saves the life of the very master +who, for reward, smites her grievously and wishes he had a sword that +he might kill her. + +Let Balaam not forget that after all he rides upon the ass, that she +has served him well ever since she was his until this day, and that +even now he is on his way with her to be promoted unto very great +honour by the Princes of Balak. And let him remember that whatever can +speak may at any moment have a word to say to him which it were best +he should hear. + + RASPER. + + + + +_The Point acknowledged_ + + + [Sidenote: _Vanity Fair_, Jan. 18, 1879.] + +Well hit! my dear _Vanity_, and I find, on searching again, that +historically you are right. + +The fact, doubtless, explains the conviction of the race in their +mission, but I fancy you will admit that this is the _only Ass on +record_ who ever _did_ "see the Angel of the Lord!" and that we are +past the age of miracles. + + Yours always, + + THE WHITE HOUSE, + Jan. 11, 1879. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Critic's Analysis_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Saturday Review_, June 1, 1867. P. G. + Hamerton.] + +In the "Symphony in White No. III." by Mr. Whistler there are many +dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. +One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue +ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green +leaves. There is a girl in white on a white sofa, but even this girl +has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh colour of the +complexions. + + + + +_The Critic's Mind Considered_ + + +How pleasing that such profound prattle should inevitably find its +place in print! "Not precisely a symphony in white ... for there is a +yellowish dress ... brown hair, etc.... another with reddish hair ... +and of course there is the flesh colour of the complexions." + +_Bon Dieu!_ did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? +And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a +symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued +repetition of F, F, F.?... Fool! + + Chelsea, + June 1867. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Troubled One_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, July 3, 1878.] + +The "Season Number" of _Vanity Fair_ contains ... Mr. Whistler's +etching of "St. James's Street" is sadly disappointing. + + + + +_Full Absolution_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, July 10, 1878.] + +Dear _World_--Atlas, overburdened with the world and its sins, may +well be relieved from the weight of one wee error--a sort of last +straw that bothers his back. The impression in _Vanity Fair_ that +disappoints him is not an etching at all, but a reproduction for that +paper by some transfer process. + +Atlas has the wisdom of ages, and need not grieve himself with mere +matters of art. "Il n'est pas necessaire que vous sachiez ces +choses-la, mon reverend pere!" + + Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_"Confidences" with an Editor_ + + +_TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HOUR."_ + +Sir,--I have read the intelligent remarks of your critic upon my +pictures, and am happy to be able to remove, I think, the "melancholy" +impression left upon his mind by the supposition that "the best works +are not of recent date." Permit me to reassure him, for the paintings +he speaks of in glowing terms--notably "the full-length portrait of a +young girl," which he overwhelms me by comparing to Velasquez, as well +as the two life-size portraits in black, "in which there is an almost +entire negation of colour" (though I, who am, he says, a colourist, +did not know it)--are my latest works, and but just completed. + +May I still farther correct a misconception? The etchings and +dry-points in the gallery do not form a complete set. There are only +fifty exhibited, making about half the number I have executed. + +Again, it was from no feeling that "my works were not seen to +advantage when placed in juxtaposition with those of an essentially +different kind," that I "determined to have an exhibition of my own, +where no discordant elements should distract the spectator's +attention." It is true that occasionally it has been borne in upon my +mind that those whose "works are of an essentially different kind," +are unwilling to place mine in juxtaposition with their own. + +My wish has been, though, to prove that the place in which works of +art are shown may be made as free from "discordant elements which +distract the spectators' attention" as the works themselves. + +Marvelling greatly that the "principle" that has led me (in his eyes +at least) to paint so that he speaks of me in the same breath with +Velasquez, should be "founded on fallacy,"--I remain, sir, your +obedient servant, + + June 10, 1874. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Critics "Copy"_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 8, 1880.] + +At the Gallery of the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street, an +exhibition has been opened of the etchings of Venice, executed by Mr. +Whistler. Exhibitions are sometimes of slender constitution nowadays. +Mr. Whistler's etchings are twelve in number, of unimportant +dimensions, and of the slightest workmanship. They convey a certain +sense of distance and atmosphere, otherwise it cannot be said that +they are of particular value or originality. They rather resemble +vague first intentions, or memoranda for future use, than designs +completely carried out. Probably every artist coming from Venice +brings with him some such outlines as these in his sketch-books. +Apparently, so far as his twelve etchings are to be considered as +evidence in the matter, Venice has not deeply stirred either Mr. +Whistler or his art. + + + + +_A Proposal_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 29, 1880.] + +Atlas, _mon bon, mefiez-vous de vos gens!_ Your art gentleman says +that Mr. Whistler exhibits twelve etchings, "slight in execution and +unimportant in size." Now the private assassin you keep, for us, need +not be hampered by mere connoisseurship in the perpetration of his +duty--therefore, _passe_, for the execution--but he should not +compromise his master's reputation for brilliancy, and print things +that he who runs may scoff at. + +Seriously, then, my Atlas, an etching does not depend, for its +importance, upon its size. "I am not arguing with you--I am telling +you." As well speak of one of your own charming _mots_ as unimportant +in length! + +Look to it, Atlas. Be severe with your man. Tell him his "job" should +be "neatly done." I could cut my own throat better; and if need be, in +case of his dismissal, I offer my services. + +Meanwhile, yours joyously, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Painter-Etcher Papers_ + + + [Sidenote: "A Storm in an AEsthetic Teapot." + + _The Cuckoo_, April 11, 1881.] + +The exhibition of etchings at the Hanover Gallery has been the +occasion of one of those squabbles which amuse everybody--perhaps, +even including the quarrellers themselves. Some etchings, exceedingly +like Mr. Whistler's in manner, but signed "Frank Duveneck," were sent +to the Painter-Etchers' Exhibition from Venice. The Painter-Etchers +appear to have suspected for a moment that the works were really Mr. +Whistler's; and, not desiring to be the victims of an easy hoax on the +part of that gentleman, three of their members--Dr. Seymour Haden, Dr. +Hamilton, and Mr. Legros--went to the Fine Art Society's Gallery, in +New Bond Street, and asked one of the assistants there to show them +some of Mr. Whistler's Venetian plates. From this assistant they +learned that Mr. Whistler was under an arrangement to exhibit and sell +his Venetian etchings only at the Fine Art Society's Gallery; but, even +if these Painter-Etchers really believed that "Frank Duveneck" +was only another name for James Whistler, this information about the +Fine Art Society's arrangement with him need not have shaken that +belief, for the _nom de plume_ might easily have been adopted with the +concurrence of the society's leading spirits. Nor is it altogether +certain that the Painter-Etchers did anything more than compare, for +their own satisfaction as connoisseurs, the works of Mr. Whistler and +"Frank Duveneck." The motive of their doing so may have been +misunderstood by the Fine Art Society's assistant with whom they +conferred. + +Be that as it may, this assistant thought fit to repeat to Mr. +Whistler what had passed, and also his own impressions as to the +motive of the comparison and the inquiries which the Painter-Etchers +had instituted. Whereupon Mr. Whistler has addressed a letter to Mr. +Seymour Haden (who is, by the way, _his brother-in-law_), of which all +that need be here said, is that it is extremely characteristic of Mr. +Whistler. + + + + +_Later_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Cuckoo_, April 30, 1881.] + +Some time ago I referred to a storm in an "aesthetic tea-pot" that was +brewed and had burst in the Fine Art Society's Gallery, in Bond +Street, in _re_ Mr. Whistler's Venice Etchings. It seems to me that +Mr. Seymour Haden, Mr. Legros, and Mr. Hamilton stumbled on an +artistic mare's nest, that they rashly suggested that Mr. Whistler had +been guilty of gross misfeasance in publishing etchings in an assumed +name, and that they are now trying to get out of the scrape as best +they may. This is, however, simply an opinion formed on perusal of the +following documents, which I here present to my readers to judge of: + +The following paragraph was some time ago sent to me with this +letter:-- + + "If the Editor of the '_Cuckoo_' should see his way to the + publication of the accompanying paragraph as it stands, twenty + copies may be sent, for circulation among the Council of the + Society of Painter-Etchers, to Mr. Piker, newsvendor, Shepherd's + Market." + + "MR. WHISTLER AND THE PAINTER-ETCHERS.--Our explanation of this + 'Storm in a Tea-pot' turns out to have been in the main correct. + It appears that not only were the three gentlemen who went to the + Fine Art Society's Gallery to look at Mr. Whistler's etchings + guiltless of offence, but that the object of their going there + was actually less to show that Mr. Whistler _was_ than that he + was _not_ the author of the etchings which for a moment had + puzzled them. + + "For this, indeed, they seem to have given each other--in the + presence of the blundering assistant, of course--three very + distinct reasons. + + "Firstly, that, as already stated, Mr. Seymour Haden had quite + seriously written to Mr. Duveneck to buy the etchings. + + "Secondly, that they at once accepted as satisfactory and + sufficient the explanation given them of Mr. Whistler's + obligations to the Fine Art Society; and, thirdly, though this + count appears to have somehow slipped altogether out of the + indictment--they were one and all of opinion that, taken all + round, the Duveneck etchings were the _best of the two (sic)_!!! + + "It is a pity a clever man like Mr. Whistler is yet not clever + enough to see that while habitual public attacks on a _near + relative_ cannot fail to be, to the majority of people, + unpalatable, they are likely to be, when directed against a + brother etcher, even _suspecte_." + +I did not at the time "see my way" to publishing the paragraph "as it +stands," but, having subsequently received the following +correspondence, I think it only right to give Mr. Piker's paragraph +publicity, along with the letters subjoined:-- + + "THE FINE ART SOCIETY," + 148 NEW BOND STREET. + March 18, 1881. + + [Sidenote: Letter from Mr. Huish to Mr. Haden.] + +"To Seymour Haden, Esq.--My dear Sir,--Mr. Whistler has called upon me +respecting your visit here yesterday with Mr. Legros and Dr. Hamilton, +the purport of which had been communicated to him by Mr. Brown." + +"He is naturally indignant that, knowing, as you apparently did, that +he was under an engagement not to publish for a certain time any +etchings of Venice except those issued by us, you should suggest that +they were his work, and had been sent in by him under a _nom de +plume_." + +"He considers that it is damaging to his reputation in connection with +us, and he requests me to write and ask you whether you adhere to your +opinion or retract it." + +"Believe me to remain, yours faithfully, + + "MARCUS B. HUISH." + + + "38 HERTFORD STREET, MAYFAIR, W. + March 21, 1881. + + [Sidenote: Letter from Mr. Haden to Mr. Huish.] + +"To M. Huish, Esq.--Dear Sir,--I am in receipt of a letter from you, +dated the 18th inst., in which you first impute to me an opinion which +I have never held, and then call me to account for that opinion. +To a peremptory letter so framed, I shall not be misunderstood if I +simply decline to plead." + +"Meanwhile, that I was _not_ of opinion that the etchings in our hands +were by Mr. Whistler is conclusively proved by the fact that on the +day after their reception I had written to Mr. Duveneck to arrange for +their purchase!" + +"Be this, however, as it may, I can have no hesitation on the part +both of myself and of the gentlemen engaged with me in a necessary +duty, in expressing our sincere regret if, by a mistaken +representation of our proceedings, Mr. Whistler has been led to +believe that we had said or implied anything which could give him pain +or reflect in any way on his reputation either with you or your +directors." + + "Faithfully yours, + "F. SEYMOUR HADEN." + + + "ARTS CLUB," + HANOVER SQUARE. + + [Sidenote: Letter from J. M'N. Whistler to Mr. Haden. + March 29, 1881.] + +"To Seymour Haden, Esq.--Sir--Mr. Huish handed me your letter of the +21st inst., since when I have waited in vain for the true version +that, I doubted not, would follow the 'mistaken representation' you +regret I should have received." + +"Now I must ask that you will, if possible, without further delay, +give me a thorough explanation of your visit to the Fine Art Society's +Gallery on Friday evening, the 17th inst.,--involving, as it did, a +discussion of my private affairs." + +"Did you, accompanied by M. Legros and Dr. Hamilton, call at the Fine +Art Society's rooms on that date, and ask to see Mr. Whistler's +etchings?" + +"Did you there proceed to make a careful and minute examination of +these, and then ask Mr. Brown if Mr. Whistler had done other etchings +of Venice?" + +"Upon his answer in the affirmative, did you ask Mr. Brown if any of +the other plates were large ones, and, notably, whether Mr. Whistler +had done any other plate of the subject called 'The Riva'?" + +"Did you ask to see the early states of Mr. Whistler's etchings?" + +"Did you say to Mr. Brown, 'Now, is not Mr. Whistler under an +engagement with the Fine Art Society to publish no Venice etchings for +a year?' or words to that effect? and upon Mr. Brown's assurance that +such was the case, did you request him to go with you to the Hanover +Gallery?" + +"Did you there produce for his inspection three large Venice etchings, +and among them the 'Riva' subject?" + +"Did you then incite Mr. Brown to detect, in these works, the hand +of Mr. Whistler?" + +"Did you point out details of execution which, in your opinion, +betrayed Mr. Whistler's manner?" + +"Did you say, 'You see these etchings are signed "Frank Duveneck," and +I have written to that name and address for their purchase, but I +don't believe in the existence of such a person,' or words to that +effect?" + +"If this be not so, + +"Why did you take Mr. Brown over to the Hanover Gallery?" + +"Why did you show him Mr. Duveneck's Venice etchings?" + +"Why did you question him about my engagement with the Fine Art +Society?" + +"Is it officially, as the Painter-Etchers' President, that you pry +about the town?" + +"Does the Committee sanction your suggestions? and have you permitted +yourself these 'proceedings' with the full knowledge and approval of +the 'dozen or more distinguished men seated in serious council,' as +described by yourself in the _Pall Mall Gazette_?" + +"Of what nature, pray, is the 'necessary duty' that has led two +medical men and a Slade Professor to fail as connoisseurs, and blunder +as detectives?" + +"'Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? Dere is no honest man +dat shall come in my closet!'" + +[Illustration] + +"Copies of this correspondence will be sent to members of your +Committee." + +To this last letter, Mr. Seymour Haden has not as yet sent any answer, +and here the matter rests. As requested, we have sent Mr. Piker the +copies he requires for distribution. + + THE EDITOR OF THE "CUCKOO." + + + + +_La Suite_ + + + "ARTS CLUB," + May 10, 1881. + +To the Committee of the Painter-Etchers' Society: + + [Sidenote: Letter to the Committee of "Painter-Etchers' + Society."] + +Gentlemen,--I have hitherto, in vain, written to Sir William Drake, as +secretary of the Painter-Etchers' Society, and feeling convinced that +his elaborate silence cannot possibly be the expression of any +intended discourtesy on the part of the Committee, as a body, but that +it would rather indicate that they had not been consulted in the +matter at all, I now address myself to you, and beg that you will +kindly inform me whether the Committee, as represented by their +officers, endorse the late acts of their President, or whether they +intend taking any steps towards refusing to share the shame and +ridicule that have accrued from certain "proceedings" described by Mr. +Haden as a "necessary duty," in the exercise of which he was +officially engaged in conjunction with Dr. Hamilton and M. Legros. + +That you may clearly see how current the matter has become, I have the +honour, Gentlemen, to send you herewith, for your serious +consideration, extracts from the daily press, and thus, as you will +read, carry out myself the first intention of a certain speculative +Piker, newsvendor, Shepherd's Market, who had purposed circulating +among you "twenty copies" of the enclosed literary venture--curtailed, +it is true, to the original "Piker paragraph," and unaccompanied by +the Piker twenty-penny prospect; the printing of which may--who +knows?--have caused a wavering on the part of Piker, and have left you +deprived of his labour after all. + +Piker offers matter with authority--and here I would point out the +_close proximity of Shepherd's Market to Hertford Street, +Mayfair_!--most suggestive is such contiguity. The newsvendor's stall +and the doctor's office within hail of each other! + +Surely I may, without indiscretion, congratulate the President upon +Piker's English and also upon the Pecksniffian whine about the +"brother-in-law"--rather telling in its way--but shallow! shallow!--for +after all, Gentlemen, a brother-in-law is _not_ a connection calling +for sentiment--in the abstract, rather an intruder than "a near +relation"--indeed, "near relation" is mere swagger! + +Meanwhile, the insinuation of jealousy of the "brother-etcher" is, as +Piker puts it, "_suspecte_"--very!--and modest!--and transparent! + +To the last paper I have added the cutting from the former _Cuckoo_ +(Piker's earlier effort) so that you have the occasion of perceiving +how the progressive Piker party have gained in courage--until, in +direct contradiction to their first anxiety and hesitation, we reach +the final _overwhelming certainty_ of the three representative +gentlemen, whose visit to the Fine Art Society's rooms, it would _now_ +appear, was absolutely to prove to the "blundering assistant" that +some etchings he had never seen, and, consequently never had +questioned;--of the very existence of which, in short, he was utterly +unconscious,--were by a Mr. Duveneck, of whom he had never heard, and +_not_ by Mr. Whistler!--a fact that in his whole life he had never +been in a position to dispute--and of which _the three Painter-Etchers +themselves were the only people_ who had ever had any doubt! + +Really, they either doubted Duveneck, or they didn't doubt Duveneck!--Now, +if the Piker party didn't doubt Duveneck, who the devil did the Piker +party doubt? And why, may I ask, does Mr. Haden, _two days after_ +the disastrous blunder in Bond Street, _volunteer_ the following note +of explanation to Mr. Brown, the assistant?-- + + (COPY.) + + "38 HERTFORD STREET, MAYFAIR, W. + March 19, 1881. + + "To Ernest Brown, Esq.--Dear Sir,--We know all about Mr. Frank + Duveneck, and are delighted to have his etchings.--Yours + faithfully," + + "F. SEYMOUR HADEN." + +It will be remembered that the little expedition to the Fine Art +Society's Gallery took place on _Thursday evening, the 17th_ of March. +On Friday, the 18th, Mr. Huish wrote to Mr. Haden demanding an +explanation; and on _Saturday, the 19th_, this over-diplomatic and +criminating note was sent to Mr. Brown,--altogether unasked for, and +curiously difficult to excuse!--"Methinks, he doth protest too much!" + +Further comment I believe to be unnecessary. + +I refer you, Gentlemen, to my letter of March 29th, which Mr. Haden +has never been able to answer--and merely point out that, the +"blundering assistant" was the only one who did not blunder at +all--since he alone, refrained from folly, and, notwithstanding all +exhortation, steadily refused, in the presence of cunning +connoisseurs, to mistake the work of one man for that of another. + + I have, Gentlemen, the honour to be, + Your obedient servant, + J. MCNEILL WHISTLER. + + + May 18, 1881. + + TO THE COMMITTEE OF + THE PAINTER-ETCHERS' SOCIETY. + +May I, without impertinence, ask what really does constitute the +"Painter-Etcher" "all round," as Piker has it?--for, of these three +gentlemen who have so markedly distinguished themselves in that +character, two certainly are not painters--and one doesn't etch! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Correction_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Nov. 14, 1883.] + +A supposititious conversation in _Punch_ brought about the following +interchange of telegrams:-- + +From Oscar Wilde, Exeter, to J. McNeill Whistler, Tite Street.--_Punch_ +too ridiculous--when you and I are together we never talk about +anything except ourselves. + +From Whistler, Tite Street, to Oscar Wilde, Exeter.--No, no, Oscar, +you forget--when you and I are together, we never talk about anything +except me. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Warning_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, June 1, 1881.] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "A foolish man's foot is soon in his neighbour's house; + but a man of experience is ashamed of him." + + [Illustration]] + +My dear James,--I see from a weekly paper that your late residence, +the White House, in Tite Street, is now occupied by Mr. Harry Quilter, +"the excellent art critic and writer on art," or words to that effect. +This is the great man who has succeeded Mr. Tom Taylor on the _Times_, +and whose vagaries in art criticism you and I, my dear James, have +previously noticed.... + + ATLAS. + + + + +_Naif Enfant_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Times_, May 2, 1881.] + +Close to this is another portrait of extreme interest, and, though of +another kind, it is not inappropriately near Mr. Hunt's work. This is +Mr. John Ruskin, painted by Mr. Herkomer. It is difficult to +dissociate this picture, as regards the merit of its painting, from +the interest which attaches to it as being the first oil portrait we +have ever seen of our great art critic.... The picture remains a +singularly fine one, and is, in our opinion, Mr. Herkomer's best +portrait. + + + + +_A Straight Tip_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, May 18, 1881.] + +"Ne pas confondre intelligence avec gendarmes"--but surely, dear +Atlas, when the art critic of the _Times_, suffering possibly from +chronic catarrh, is wafted in at the Grosvenor without guide or +compass, and cannot by mere sense of smell distinguish between oil and +water colour, he ought, like Mark Twain, "to inquire." + +Had he asked the guardian or the fireman in the gallery, either might +have told him not to say that one of the chief interests of Mr. +Herkomer's large water-colour drawing of Mr. Ruskin "attaches to it as +being _the first oil portrait_ we have ever seen of our great art +critic"! Adieu. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Eager Authority_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 9, 1881.] + +Mr. Whistler knows how to defend himself so perkily that it is a +pleasure to attack him. I hasten, therefore, with joy, to submit to +you, dear Atlas, who are growing so very clever at your languages, the +following crotchets and quavers--shall I call them? for Mr. Whistler +is just now full of "notes"--in American-Italian; they are from his +delightful brown-paper catalogue. To begin with, "Santa Margharita" is +wrong; it must be either Margarita or Margherita; the other is +impossible Italian. Then who or what is "San Giovanni _Apostolo et +Evangelistae_"? Does the sprightly and shrill McNeill mean this for +Latin? And is the "Cafe Orientale" intended to be French or Italian? +It has an _e_ too many for French, and an _f_ too few for Italian. +"Piazetta," furthermore, does duty for "Piazzetta." Finally I give up +"Campo Sta. Martin." I don't know what that can be. The Italian +Calendar has a San Martino and a Santa Martina, but Sta. Martin is +very curious. The catalogue is exceedingly short, but a few of the +names are right. + + + + +_An Admission_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 16, 1881] + +Touche!--and my compliments to your "Correspondent," Atlas, +_cheri_--far from me to justify spelling of my own! But who could +possibly have supposed an orthographer loose! Evidently too "ung +vieulx qui a moult roule en Palestine et aultres lieux!" + +What it is to be prepared, though! Atlas, _mon pauvre ami_, you know +the story of the witness who, when asked how far he stood from the +spot where the deed was done, answered unhesitatingly--"Sixty-three +feet seven inches!" "How, sir," cried the prosecuting lawyer--"how can +you possibly pretend to such accuracy?" "Well," returned the man in +the box, "you see I thought some d----d fool would be sure to ask me, +and so I measured." + +[Illustration] + + + + +_'Arry in the Grosvenor_ + + +Atlas--In spite of the Kyrle Society, I don't appeal to the middle +classes; for I read in the _Times_ that 'Arry won't have me. I am +ranked with the _caviare_ of his betters, and add not to the relish of +his winkles and tea. + +Also, why troubles he about many things? + + [Sidenote: _The World_, May 17, 1882.] + +But, alas! as is aptly remarked in one of the weekly papers, "'Arry +has taken to going to the Grosvenor;" and "ce n'est pas tout que +d'etre honnete," he says, lightly paraphrasing Alfred de Musset, "il +faut etre joli garcon!" + +And so he blooms into an aesthete of his own order. To have seen him, O +my wise Atlas, was my privilege and my misery; for he stood under one +of my own "harmonies"--already with difficulty gasping its gentle +breath--himself an amazing "arrangement" in strong mustard-and-cress, +with bird's-eye belcher of Reckitt's blue; and then and +there destroyed absolutely, unintentionally, and once for all, my +year's work! + +Atlas, shall these things be? + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Encouragement_ + + + _TO OSCAR ON HIS "TOUR."_ + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 15, 1882.] + +Oscar--We, of Tite Street and Beaufort Gardens, joy in your triumphs +and delight in your success; but we are of opinion that, with the +exception of your epigrams, you talk like "S---- C---- in the +provinces"; and that, with the exception of your knee-breeches, you +dress like 'Arry Quilter. + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Remonstrance_ + + +Atlas, how could you! + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 22, 1882.] + +I know you carry the _World_ on your back, and am not surprised that +my note to Oscar, on its way, should have fallen from your shoulders +into your dainty fingers; but why present it in the state of puzzle? + +Besides, your caution is one-sided and unfair; for if you print S---- +C----, why not A---- Q----? Why not X Y Z at once? + +And how unlike me! Instead of the frank recklessness which has +unfortunately become a characteristic, I am, for the first time, +disguised in careful timidity, and discharge my insinuating initials +from the ambush of innuendo. + +My dear Atlas, if I may not always call a spade a spade, may I not +call a Slade Professor, Sidney Colvin? + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Propositions_ + + + [Sidenote: With compliments to the Committee of the + "Hoboken" Etching Club upon the occasion of receiving an + invitation to compete in an etching tourney whose first + condition was that the plate should be at least two feet + by three. + + [Illustration]] + +I. That in Art, it is criminal to go beyond the means used in its +exercise. + +II. That the space to be covered should always be in proper relation +to the means used for covering it. + +III. That in etching, the means used, or instrument employed, being +the finest possible point, the space to be covered should be small in +proportion. + +IV. That all attempts to overstep the limits insisted upon by such +proportion, are inartistic thoroughly, and tend to reveal the paucity +of the means used, instead of concealing the same, as required by Art +in its refinement. + +V. That the huge plate, therefore, is an offence--its undertaking an +unbecoming display of determination and ignorance--its accomplishment +a triumph of unthinking earnestness and uncontrolled energy--endowments +of the "duffer." + +VI. That the custom of "Remarque" emanates from the amateur, and +reflects his foolish facility beyond the border of his picture, thus +testifying to his unscientific sense of its dignity. + +VII. That it is odious. + +VIII. That, indeed, there should be no margin on the proof to receive +such "Remarque." + +IX. That the habit of margin, again, dates from the outsider, and +continues with the collector in his unreasoning connoisseurship--taking +curious pleasure in the quantity of paper. + +X. That the picture ending where the frame begins, and, in the case of +the etching, the white mount, being inevitably, because of its colour, +the frame, the picture thus extends itself irrelevantly through the +margin to the mount. + +XI. That wit of this kind would leave six inches of raw canvas between +the painting and its gold frame, to delight the purchaser with the +quality of the cloth. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Unanswered Letter_ + + + PRE CHARMOY, AUTUN, + SAONE ET LOIRE, FRANCE, + Sept. 13, 1867. + +Sir--I am at present engaged upon a book on etching and should be glad +to give a full account of what you have done, but find a difficulty, +which is that, although I have seen many of your etchings, I have not +fully and fairly studied them. I wonder whether you would object to +lend me a set of proofs for a few weeks. As the book is already +advanced, I should be glad of an early reply. My opinion of your work +is, _on the whole, so favourable that your reputation could only gain_ +by your affording me the opportunity of speaking of your work at +length. + + I remain, Sir, + Your obedient servant, + P. G. HAMERTON. + +JAMES WHISTLER, Esq. + + + + +_Inconsequences_ + + + [Sidenote: The "book on etching."] + +James Whistler is of American extraction, and studied painting in +France. As a student he was capricious and irregular, and did not +leave the impression amongst his fellow-pupils that his future would +be in any way distinguished ... his artistic education seems to have +been mainly acquired by private and independent study.... + +Mr. Whistler seems to be aware that etchings are usually sought as +much for their rarity as their excellence, and to have determined that +his own plates shall be rare already. + +I have been told that, if application is made by letter to Mr. +Whistler for a set of his etchings, he may, perhaps, if he chooses to +answer the letter, do the applicant the favour to let him have a copy +for about the price of a good horse.... + +Whistler's etchings are not generally remarkable for poetical +feeling.... + + P. G. HAMERTON,[20] + _Etching and Etchers_. + + [Note 20: "If beauty were the only province of art, + neither painters nor etchers would find anything to + occupy them in the foul stream that washes the London + wharfs"--P. G. HAMERTON, _Etching and Etchers_.] + + + + +_Uncovered Opinions_ + + +Mr. Whistler's famous "Woman in White" is amongst the rejected +pictures.... The hangers must have thought her particularly ugly, for +they have given her a sort of place of honour, before an opening +through which all pass, so that nobody misses her. + +I watched several parties, to see the impression the "Woman in White" +made on them. They all stopped instantly, struck with amazement. This +for two or three seconds; then they always looked at each other and +laughed. + +Here, for once, I have the happiness to be quite of the popular way of +thinking. + + [21]P. G. HAMERTON, + _Fine Arts Quarterly_. + + [Note 21: "Corot is one of the most celebrated + landscape painters in France. The first impression of an + Englishman, on looking at his works, is that they are + the sketches of an amateur; it is difficult at first + sight to consider them the serious performances of an + artist.... I _understand Corot now_, and think his + reputation, if not well deserved, at least easily + accounted for.... Corot must be an early riser."--P. G. + HAMERTON, _Fine Arts Quarterly_.] + + [Note 21: "Dore (Gustave Paul).... He is a great and + marvellous genius--a poet such as a nation produces once + in a thousand years. He is the most imaginative, the + profoundest, the most productive poet that has ever + sprung from the French race."--P. G. HAMERTON, _Fine + Arts Quarterly_.] + + [Note 21: "Daubigny (Charles Francois).--If + landscape can be satisfactorily painted without either + drawing or colour--Daubigny is the man to do it."--P. G. + HAMERTON, _Fine Arts Quarterly_.] + + [Note 21: "M. Courbet is looked upon as the + representative of Realism in France. The truth is that + Edouard Frere, the Bonheurs, and many others are to the + full as realistic as Courbet but they produce beautiful + pictures.... It is difficult to speak of Courbet, + without losing patience. Everything he touches becomes + unpleasant."--P. G. HAMERTON, _Fine Arts Quarterly_.] + + + + +_The Fate of an Anecdote_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _New York Tribune_, Sept. 12, 1880] + +Sir--In _Scribner's Magazine_ for this month there appears an article +on Mr. Seymour Haden, the eminent surgeon etcher, by a Mr. Hamerton, +and in this article I have stumbled upon a curious statement +concerning, strangely enough, my own affairs, offered pleasantly in +the disguise of an anecdote habitually "narrated" by the Doctor +himself, and printed effectively in inverted commas, as here shown: + +... "A parallel anecdote is narrated by Mr. Haden: 'The most exquisite +series of plates which Whistler ever did--his sixteen Thames +subjects--were originally printed by a steel-plate printer, and so +badly that the owner thought the plates were worn out, and sold them +for a small sum in comparison to their real worth. The purchaser took +them to Goulding, the best printer of etchings in England, and it was +found that they were not only perfect, but that they produced +impressions which had never before been approached even by +Delatre.'" + +Putting gently aside the question of these plates being superior to +all previous or subsequent work, and dealing merely with facts, I have +to say that they were _not_ "originally printed by a steel-plate +printer"; that the impressions were _not_ so bad that the owner +thought the plates worn out; and, flattering as is the supposition +that they were sold for a small sum in comparison to their real worth, +I am obliged to reject even this palatable assertion, as I received +for the plates the price that I asked, knowing full well their exact +condition. + +Instead of the "steel-plate printer," Delatre, then at his prime, had +himself printed these etchings--a fact which, amusingly enough, Mr. +Haden admits further on, in direct contradiction to his first broad +statement. Moreover, I had myself pulled proofs of them all; indeed, +one in the set of sixteen plates, a drypoint, called "The Forge" (for +by the way they were not all of the Thames), I alone printed. When the +plates left my hands they were _not_ "taken to Goulding," who at that +moment had, I fancy, barely begun his career as "the best printer of +etchings in England" (and a capital printer he certainly is); and it +was _not_ "found that they produced impressions never before approached +even by Delatre"--here we have the contradiction alluded to--no! +this theatrical denouement I must also put aside with sorrow. + +The plates were brought out by Messrs. Ellis, who had them printed by +some one in London, whose work was certainly not to be compared to +that of Delatre, whom I should undoubtedly have recommended; so that +_it was only long after the sale had been completed and the plates had +ceased to be in my possession_, that inferior impressions were +produced. + +The understanding on my part with those publishers was that the plates +were to be destroyed after one hundred impressions had been taken, but +very recently they reappeared, and were sold to their present +possessors, who _did_ take them to Mr. Goulding. And here I am obliged +to explain away the last element of astonishment, for Mr. Goulding +naturally found the etchings in their original perfect condition +simply because I had had them steeled in their full bloom when I had +satisfied myself by my own proofs. + +Goulding's impressions of these plates are very excellent, but to say +they were quite unapproached by Delatre is not only needless +exaggeration, but an unkindness to Mr. Goulding. + +Surely there must be some misunderstanding between Mr. Haden and his +biographer--a misdeal of data--an accident with the anecdotes--because +no one was more keenly alive to all relating to these plates and +their various states than Mr. Haden himself, whose strong sense of the +importance of printing was acquired while watching the progress of +these same plates, and the previous French set, as they were proved by +me and printed by Delatre, to whom I introduced him. + +Far from me to spoil a good story; but for the life of me I cannot see +what any sympathizing _raconteur_ will regret in the destruction of +this mere jumble of statistics that Mr. Hamerton calls "Mr. Haden's +anecdote." + +VENICE, Aug. 16, 1880. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_In Excelsis_ + + +Mr. Hamerton presents his compliments to Mr. Whistler, and begs to +inform him that he has read Mr. Whistler's very unbecoming and +improper letter in the _New York Tribune_. + +Mr. Hamerton in his article in _Scribner's Monthly_ simply quoted a +passage from one of Mr. Haden's lectures on Etching, published in +Cassell's _Magazine of Art_; consequently Mr. Hamerton did not offer +matter to his readers under any disguise whatever. Mr. Hamerton has +answered Mr. Whistler's letter in the same journal in which it +appeared. + + PRE CHARMOY, AUTUN, SAONE ET LOIRE, + Sept. 28, 1880. + + + + +_A Suspicion_ + + +It is possibly too much to expect--upon the principle of "trumps not +turning up twice"--but Mr. Whistler does hope that Mr. Hamerton's +letter to the _New York Tribune_ will be as funny as his note to Mr. +Whistler, which has just been forwarded from London. + + VENICE, Oct. 7. + CAFE FLORIAN, PLACE SAN MARC. + +Pardon! Is Mr. Whistler right in supposing, from the droll little +irritation shown in Mr. Hamerton's note, that Mr. Hamerton is +perhaps--another "Art Critic"? + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Conviction_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _New York Tribune_, Oct. 11, 1880.] + +Sir--A friend in America has sent me the letter from Mr. Whistler +which refers to my article in _Scribner_ on Mr. Haden's etchings. The +letter begins as follows: + +In _Scribner's Magazine_ for this month there appears an article on +Mr. Seymour Haden, the eminent surgeon etcher by a Mr. Hamerton, and +in this article I have stumbled upon a curious statement +concerning--strangely enough--my own affairs, offered pleasantly in +the disguise of an anecdote habitually 'narrated' by the Doctor +himself, and printed effectively in inverted commas, as here shown. + +Here Mr. Whistler accuses me of disguising something which I chose to +tell, as if it came from Mr. Haden, by printing it in inverted commas. +The statement is "offered pleasantly in the disguise of an anecdote," +and "printed effectively in inverted commas." I used inverted +commas because it is the custom to do so when making a quotation. I +quoted Mr. Haden's own words from one of his lectures on etching, and +they will be found printed, as I quoted them, in Cassell's _Magazine +of Art_. I beg to be permitted to observe that a writer who quotes a +passage, as I did, in perfect good faith, ought not to be accused of +offering matter in disguise. There was no disguise about it. Mr. +Haden's words may be compared with my quotation. Again, to prevent any +possible inaccuracy, a proof of the article in _Scribner_ was sent to +Mr. Haden before it was published.[22] It is scarcely necessary that I +should allude to Mr. Whistler's studied discourtesy in calling me "a +Mr. Hamerton." It does me no harm, but it is a breach of ordinary good +manners in speaking of a well-known writer! + + [Note 22: _REFLECTION:_ + + Queen's evidence.] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Q. E. D. + + [Illustration]] + + Yours obediently, + P. G. HAMERTON. + AUTUN, Sept. 29, 1880. + + + + +_MR. WHISTLER + AND + HIS CRITICS_ + +_A CATALOGUE_ + + +[Illustration] + +"Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them." + + + + +"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" + +[Illustration] + +_Etchings and Dry-points_ + +"His pictures form a dangerous precedent." + + * * * * * + +VENICE. + + +"Another crop of Mr. Whistler's little jokes." + + _Truth._ + + +1.--MURANO--GLASS FURNACE. + +"Criticism is powerless here."--_Knowledge._ + + +2.--DOORWAY AND VINE. + +"He must not attempt to palm off his deficiencies upon us as +manifestations of power." + + _Daily Telegraph._ + + +3.--WHEELWRIGHT. + +"Their charm depends not at all upon the technical qualities so +striking in his earlier work." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + +4.--SAN BIAGIO. + +"So far removed from any accepted canons of art as to be beyond the +understanding of an ordinary mortal."--_Observer._ + + +5.--BEAD STRINGERS. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "Et voila comme on ecrit l'histoire." + + [Illustration]] + +"'Impressionistes,' _and of these the various schools are represented +by_ Mr. Whistler, Mr. Spencer Stanhope, Mr. Walter Crane, and Mr. +Strudwick." + + +6.--FISH SHOP. + +"Those who feel painfully the absence in these works of any feeling +for the past glories of Venice." + + _'Arry in the Spectator._ + + +"Whistler is eminently vulgar."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +7.--TURKEYS. + +"They say very little to the mind."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"It is the artist's pleasure to have them there, and we can't help +it."--_Edinburgh Courant._ + + +8.--NOCTURNE RIVA. + +"The Nocturne is intended to convey an impression of night."--_P. G. +Hamerton._ + + +"The subject did not admit of any drawing." + + _P. G. Hamerton._ + + +"We have seen a great many representations of Venetian skies, but +never saw one before consisting of brown smoke with clots of ink in +diagonal lines." + + +9.--FRUIT STALL. + +"The historical or poetical associations of cities have little charm +for Mr. Whistler and no place in his art." + + +10.--SAN GIORGIO. + +"An artist of incomplete performance." + + _F. Wedmore._ + + +11.--THE DYER. + +"By having as little to do as possible with tone and light and shade, +Mr. Whistler evades great difficulties."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + +"All those theoretical principles of the art, of which we have heard +so much from Messrs. Haden, Hamerton(?)[23] and Lalauze, are +abandoned." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + [Note 23: "Calling me 'a Mr. Hamerton' does me no + harm--but it is a breach of ordinary good manners in + speaking of a well-known writer." + + Yours obediently, P. G. HAMERTON. + + Sept. 29, 1880. To the Editor of the _New York + Tribune_.] + + +12.--NOCTURNE PALACES. + +"Pictures in darkness are contradictions in terms." + + _Literary World._ + + +13.--THE DOORWAY. + +"There is seldom in his Etchings any large arrangement of light and +shade."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + +"Short, scratchy lines."--_St. James's Gazette._ + + +"The architectural ornaments and the interlacing bars of the gratings +are suggested rather than drawn." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + +"Amateur prodige."--_Saturday Review._ + + +14.--LONG LAGOON. + +"We think that London fogs and the muddy old Thames supply Mr. +Whistler's needle with subjects more congenial than do the Venetian +palaces and lagoons."--_Daily News._ + + +15.--TEMPLE. + +"The work does not feel much."--_Times._ + + +16.--LITTLE SALUTE.--(DRY-POINT.) + +"As for the lucubrations of Mr. Whistler, they come like shadows and +will so depart, _and it is unnecessary to disquiet one's self about +them_." + + +17.--THE BRIDGE. + +"These works have been done with a swiftness and dash that precludes +anything like care and finish." + +"These Etchings of Mr. Whistler's are nothing like so satisfactory as +his earlier Chelsea ones; they neither convey the idea of space nor +have they the delicacy of handling and treatment which we see in +those." + +"He looked at Venice never in detail." + + _F. Wedmore._ + + +18.--WOOL CARDERS. + +"They have a merit of their own, and I do not wish to understand +it."[24]--_F. Wedmore._ + + [Note 24: Mr. Wedmore is the lucky discoverer of the + following:-- + + "Vigour and exquisiteness are denied--are they + not?--even to a Velasquez"!] + + +19.--UPRIGHT VENICE. + +"Little to recommend them save the eccentricity of their titles." + + +20.--LITTLE VENICE. + +"The Little Venice is one of the slightest of the series."--_St. +James's Gazette._ + + +"In the Little Venice and the Little Lagoon Mr. Whistler has attempted +to convey impressions by lines far too few for his purposes."--_Daily +News._ + + +"Our river is naturally full of effects in _black and white and +bistre_. Venetian skies and marbles have colour you cannot suggest +with a point and some printer's ink."--_Daily News._ + + +"It is not the Venice of a maiden's fancies."--_'Arry._ + + +21.--LITTLE COURT. + +"Merely technical triumphs."--_Standard._ + + +22.--REGENT'S QUADRANT. + +"There may be a few who find genius in insanity." + + +23.--LOBSTER POTS. + +"So little in them."[25]--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + [Note 25: The same Critic holds: + + "The Thames is beautiful from Maidenhead to Kew, but not + from Battersea to Sheerness."] + + +24.--RIVA No. 2. + +"In all his former Etchings he was careful to give a strong foundation +of firm drawing. In these plates, however, he has cast aside this +painstaking method." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + +25.--ISLANDS. + +"An artist who has never mastered the subtleties of accurate +form."[26]--_F. Wedmore._ + + [Note 26: Elsewhere Mr. Wedmore is inspired to say-- + + "The true collector must _gradually_ and _painfully_ + acquire the eye to judge of the impression."] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + _This_ is possibly the process through which the + preacher is passing. + + [Illustration]] + + +26.--THE LITTLE LAGOON. + +"Well, little new came of it, in etching; nothing new that was +beautiful."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +27.--NOCTURNE SHIPPING. + + [Sidenote: "Amazing!" + + [Illustration]] + +"This Archimago of the iconographic aoraton, or graphiology of the +Hidden."--_Daily Telegraph._ + + +"Popularity is the only insult that has not yet been offered to Mr. +Whistler."--_Oscar Wilde._ + + +28.--TWO DOORWAYS. + +"It is trying to any sketch without tone to be hung upon a wall as +these have been."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + +29.--OLD WOMEN. + +"He is never literary."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + +30.--RIVA. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Like Eno's Fruit Salt or the "Anti-mal-de-Mer." + + [Illustration]] + +"He took from London to Venice his happy fashion of suggesting lapping +water."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"Even such a well-worn subject as the Riva degli Schiavoni is made +original (?) by being taken from a high point of view, and looked at +lengthwise, instead of from the canal." + + +31.--DRURY LANE. + +"In Mr. Whistler's productions one might safely say that there is no +culture."--_Athenaeum._ + + +32.--THE BALCONY. + +"His colour is subversive."--_Russian Press._ + + +33.--ALDERNEY STREET. + +"The best art may be produced with trouble." + + _F. Wedmore._[27] + + [Note 27: "I am not a Mede nor a Persian."--F. + WEDMORE.] + + +34.--THE SMITHY. + +"They produce a disappointing impression." + +"His Etchings seem weak when framed."[28] + + _P. G. Hamerton._ + + [Note 28: Mr. Hamerton does also say: + + "Indifference to beauty is however compatible with + splendid success in etching, as the career of Rembrandt + proved."--_Etching and Etchers._] + + +35.--STABLES. + +"An unpleasing thing, and framed in Mr. Whistler's odd +fashion."--_City Press._ + + +36.--THE MAST. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + At the service of critics of unequal sizes. + + [Illustration]] + +"The Mast and the Little Mast are dependent for much of their +interest, on the drawing of festoons of cord hanging from unequal +heights." + + _P. G. Hamerton._ + + +37.--TRAGHETTO. + +"The artist's present principles seem to deny him any effective +chiaroscuro."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "Sometimes generally always." + + [Illustration]] + +"Mr. Whistler's figure drawings, generally defective and always +incomplete." + + +38.--FISHING BOAT. + +"Subjects unimportant in themselves." + + _P. G. Hamerton._ + + +39.--PONTE PIOVAN. + +"Want of variety in the handling." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + +40.--GARDEN. + +"An art which is happier in the gloom of a doorway than in the glow of +the sunshine, and turns with a pleasant blindness from whatsoever in +Nature or Man is of perfect beauty or noble thought."--_'Arry._ + + +41.--THE RIALTO. + +"Mr. Whistler has etched too much for his reputation."--_F. Wedmore._ + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + This critic, true, is a Slade Professor. + + [Illustration]] + + +"Scampering caprice."--_S. Colvin._ + + +"Mr. Whistler's drawing, which is sometimes that of a very slovenly +master." + + +42.--LONG VENICE. + +"After all, there are certain accepted canons about what constitutes +good drawing, good colour, and good painting; and when an artist +deliberately sets himself to ignore or violate all of these, it is +desirable that his work should not be classed with that of ordinary +artists."--_'Arry._ + + +43.--NOCTURNE SALUTE. + +"The utter absence, as far as my eye[29] may be trusted, of +gradation."--_F. Wedmore._ + + [Note 29:? + + [Illustration]] + + +"There are many things in a painter's art which even a photographer +cannot understand." + + _Laudatory notice in Provincial Press._ + + +44.--FURNACE NOCTURNE. + +"There is no moral element in his chiaroscuro." + + _Richmond Eagle._ + + +45.--PIAZETTA. + +"Whistler does not take much pains with his work." + + _New York Paper._ + + +"A sort of transatlantic impudence in his cleverness." + + +"His pictures do not claim to be accurate." + + +46.--THE LITTLE MAST. + +"Form and line are of little account to him." + + +47.--QUIET CANAL. + +"Herr Whistler stellt ganz wunderbare Productionen aus, die auf +Gesetze der Form und der Farbe gegruendet scheinen, die dem +Uneingeweihten unverstaendlich sind."--_Wiener Presse._ + + +"This new manner of Mr. Whistler's is no improvement upon that which +helped him to win his fame in this field of art." + + +48.--PALACES. + +"The absence, seemingly, of any power of drawing the forms of +water."[30]--_F. Wedmore._ + + [Note 30: See No. 30, _The Riva_.] + + +"He has never, so far as we know, attempted to transfer to copper any +of the more ambitious works of the architect."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +"He has been content to show us what his eyes can see, and not what +his hand can do." + + _St. James's Gazette._ + + +49.--SALUTE DAWN. + +"Too sensational."--_Athenaeum._ + + +"Pushing a single artistic principle to the verge of +affectation."--_Sidney Colvin._ + + +50.--BEGGARS. + +"In the character of humanity he has not time to be +interested."--_Standard._ + + +"General absence of tone."--_P. G. Hamerton._ + + +51.--LAGOON: NOON. + +"Years ago James Whistler was a person of high promise."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"What the art of Mr. Whistler yields is a tertium quid."[31]--_Sidney +Colvin._ + + [Note 31: _REFLECTION:_ + + The quid of sweet and bitter fancy. + + [Illustration]] + + +"All of which gems, I am sincerely thankful to say, I cannot +appreciate." + + +"As we have hinted, the series does not represent any Venice that we +much care to remember; for who wants to remember the degradation of +what has been noble, the foulness of what has been fair?" + + _'Arry[32] in the "Times."_ + + [Note 32: _REFLECTION:_ + + The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them + because he knoweth not how to go to the City. + + [Illustration]] + + +"Disastrous failures."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"Failures that are complete and failures that are partial."--_F. +Wedmore._ + + +"A publicity rarely bestowed upon failures at all." + + _F. Wedmore, Nineteenth Century._ + + [Sidenote: + + _"Voila ce que l'on dit de moi + Dans la Gazette de Hollande."_] + + +"Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake +us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we +walk in darkness." + + +"We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no +eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night." + + +"We roar all like bears." + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Taking the Bait_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Academy_, Feb. 24, 1883.] + +By the simple process of applying snippets of published sentences to +works of art to which the original comments were never meant to have +reference, and sometimes, too, by lively misquotation--as when a +writer who "did not wish to understate" Mr. Whistler's merit is made +to say he "did not wish to understand" it, Mr. Whistler has counted on +good-humouredly confounding criticism. He has entertained but not +persuaded; and if his literary efforts with the scissors and the +paste-pot might be taken with any seriousness we should have to rebuke +him for his feat. But we are far from doing so. He desired, it seems, +to say that he and Velasquez were both above criticism. An artist in +literature would have said it in fewer words; but indulgence may +fairly be granted to the less assured methods of an amateur in +authorship. + + F. WEDMORE. + + + + +_An Apology_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 28, 1883.] + +Atlas--There are those, they tell me, who have the approval of the +people--and live! For them the _succes d'estime_; for me, O Atlas, the +_succes d'execration_--the only tribute possible from the Mob to the +Master! This I have now nobly achieved. _Glissons!_ In the hour of my +triumph let me not neglect my ambulance. + +Mr. Frederick Wedmore--a critic--one of the wounded--complains that by +dexterously substituting "understand" for "understate," I have dealt +unfairly by him, and wrongly rendered his writing. Let me hasten to +acknowledge the error, and apologise. My carelessness is culpable, and +the misprint without excuse; for naturally I have all along known, and +the typographer should have been duly warned, that with Mr. Wedmore, +as with his brethren, it is always a matter of understating, and not +at all one of understanding. + +_Quant aux autres_--well, with the exception of "'Arry," who +really is dead, they will recover. Scalped and disfigured, they are +not mortally hurt; and--would you believe it?--possessed with an +infinite capacity for continuing, they have already returned, nothing +doubting, to their limited literature, of which I have exhausted the +stock.--Yours, _en passant_, + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_"Jeux Innocents" in Tite Street_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 26, 1883.] + +Mr. Whistler's final breakfast of the year was given on Sunday last. +The hospitable master has fresh wonders in store for his friends in +the new year; for, not content with treating his next-door critic +after the manner that Portuguese sailors treat the Apostle Judas at +Easter-tide, he is said to have perfected a new instrument of torture. +This invention is of the nature of a camera obscura, whereby, by a +crafty "arrangement" of reflectors, he promises to display in his own +studio, to his friends, "'Arry at the White House," under all the +appropriate circumstances that might be expected of a "Celebrity at +Home." + + ATLAS. + + + + +_A Line from the Lands End_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Jan. 2, 1884.] + +Delightful! Atlas--I have read here, to the idle miners--culture in +their manners curiously, at this season, blended with intoxication--your +brilliant and graphic description of 'Arry at the other end of my +arrangement in telescopic lenses. + +The sensitive sons of the Cornish caves, by instinct refined, revel in +the writhing of the resurrected 'Arry. + +Our natures are evidently of the same dainty brutality. Cruelty to the +critic after demise, is a revelation, and the story of 'Arry pursued +with post-mortem, and, for Sunday demonstration, kept by galvanism +from his grave, is to them most fascinating. + +I have, my sympathetic Atlas, the success that might have been Edgar +Poe's, could he have read to such an audience the horrible "Case of +Mr. Waldemar." + +My invention and machinery, by the way, these warm-hearted people +believe to be something after the fashion of their own sluice-boxes--and +I dare not undeceive them. + +Atlas, _je te la souhaite bonne et heureuse_! + + ST. IVES, CORNWALL, + Dec. 27. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Easy Expert_ + + +Atlas--They have sent me the _Spectator_--a paper upon which our late +'Arry lingered to the last as art critic. In its columns I find a +correspondent calling aloud for our kind intervention. Present me, +brave Atlas, to the editor, that I may say to him: + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Jan. 30, 1884.] + +"GOOD SIR,--'Your Reviewer' is doubtless my unburied 'Arry. Why, then, +should 'his mistaking a photogravure reproduction of a pen-and-ink +drawing by Samuel Palmer for a finished etching by the same hand' +seem, 'to say the least of it, astounding'? + +"Not at all! By this sort of thing was he known among us, poor +chap--and so was he our fresh gladness and continued surprise." + +"Did I not make historical his enchanting encounter with Mr. +Herkomer's water-colour drawing of Mr. Ruskin at the Grosvenor, which +he described as the 'first oil portrait we have of the great master'? +Amazing that, if you like! + +"Do not all remember how we leaped for joy at the reading of it?" + +"Even Atlas himself laughed aloud, and, handicapped as he is with the +World, and weighted with wisdom, danced upon his plinth, a slow +measure of reckless acquiescence, as I set down in the chronicles of +all time that 'Arry, 'unable, by mere sense of smell, to distinguish +between oil and water-colour, might at least have inquired; and that +either the fireman or the guardian in the Gallery could have told him +not to blunder in the _Times_.'" + +"But no, he never would ask--he liked his potshots at things; it used +to give a sort of sporting interest to his speculations upon pictures. +And so he was ever obstinate--or any one at the Fine Art Society would +have told him the difference between an etching and a photograph.--I +am, good sir, yours, etc." + + Atlas, _a bientot_. + +ST. IVES, CORNWALL, +Jan. 25, 1834. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Propositions--No. 2_ + + +A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about +the end has disappeared. + +To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows +great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit +for view. + +Industry in Art is a necessity--not a virtue--and any evidence of the +same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of +achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will +efface the footsteps of work. + +The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the brow--suggests no +effort--and is finished from its beginning. + +The completed task of perseverance only, has never been begun, and +will remain unfinished to eternity--a monument of goodwill and +foolishness. + +"There is one that laboureth, and taketh pains, and maketh haste, and +is so much the more behind." + +The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the +painter--perfect in its bud as in its bloom--with no reason to explain +its presence--no mission to fulfil--a joy to the artist--a delusion to +the philanthropist--a puzzle to the botanist--an accident of sentiment +and alliteration to the literary man. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Hint_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 17, 1886.] + +Please to take note, my dear Mr. James McN. W., that your "dearest +foe," 'Arry, is a candidate for the Slade Chair of Art in the +University of Cambridge! This is said to be the age of testimonials. A +few words from you, my dear James, addressed to the distinguished +trustees, could not fail to give 'Arry a lift. + + ATLAS. + + + + +_A Distinction_ + + +Atlas, you provoke me! The wisdom of ages means but little--I have +said it. _Faut etre "dans le mouvement,"_ you dear old thing, or you +are absolutely out of it! + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 24, 1886.] + +You are misled, and mistake mere fact for the fiction of history, +which is truth--and instructs--and is beautiful. + +Now, in truth, 'Arry is dead--very dead. + +Did I not, from between your shoulders, sally forth and slay +him?--thereby instructing--and making history--and avenging the +beautiful. + +If within the distant Aiden, you can't descry, "with sorrow laden," +the tiny soul of 'Arry, it is because you no longer read your own +small print, my Atlas! and the microbes of Eternity escape you. + +Moreover, are not these things written in the chronicles of Chelsea, +adown whose Embankment I still, Achilles-like, do drag the body of an +afternoon? + +This practice has doubtless completed the confusion of the +wearied ones of Slade--and they of the Schools, accustomed to the +culture of Colvin, whose polished scalp I with difficulty collected, +ceasing to distinguish between the quick and the dead, will probably +prop up our late 'Arry as professor, long to remain undetected in the +Chair! + +Atlas, _tais-toi!_--Let us not interfere! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Document_ + + +Atlas--I have come upon the posthumous paper of 'Arry--his certificate +of character, and printed pretension to the Professorship of +Slade--and O! the shame of it--and the indiscretion of it! + +Read, Atlas, and seek in your past for a parallel: + + [Sidenote: _The World_, March 24, 1886.] + +"To the Electors of the Slade Professor of Fine Art for the University +of Cambridge.--My Lord and Gentlemen,--I beg to submit my name as a +candidate for the Slade Professorship, and enclose herewith a few +testimonials ... I have also received favourable letters from the +following gentlemen ... Alma-Tadema, R.A., Marcus Stone, R.A., Briton +Riviere, R.A., John Brett, A.R.A., ... and others." + +What! is the Immaculate impure?--and shall the Academy have coquetted +with the unclean? + +Had Alma the classic aught in common with this 'Arry of commerce? + +Believe him not, Atlas! + +O Alma! O Ichabod! forgive us the thought of it! + +Surely also the pots of "the Forty" do boil before the Lord, and the +flames of the chosen were unfanned by the feather of 'Arry's +goose-quill. + +Again: + +"My experience in art matters has been briefly as follows: + +"I have worked at the subject continually in Italy, having for that +purpose travelled and stayed in that country--at least a dozen times. +I have also painted in France, Germany, and Belgium, in which +last-mentioned country I was in a portrait painter's studio."--(A +portrait by 'Arry!) + +"There are several pictures of mine being exhibited in London at the +present time." (!!!) + +"I have also executed a good deal of distemper.... + +"I have also travelled for a year in the East." ('Arry in the East!!) + +"I have had, as a lecturer upon Art, considerable experience--at +working men's clubs-- ... and at the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke's College +for men, women, and children. + +"For the last ten years I have written _every article upon art_ which +has appeared in the _Spectator_ newspaper"--a confession, Atlas, +clearly a confession! + +"In 1880, I wrote a critical life of Giotto"--he did indeed, +Atlas!--I saw it--a book in blue--his own, and Reckitt's--all bold +with brazen letters: + + "GIOTTO BY 'ARRY" + +--"of which two editions were published"--bless him--and then I killed +him! + + and, "I am, Gentlemen, + "Your most obedient servant, + "'ARRY, M.A. + "Trin. Coll. Camb., _Esquire_." + +The pride of it! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Sacrilege_ + + +O Atlas! What of the "Society for the Preservation of Beautiful +Buildings"? + + [Sidenote: Upon the Alterations of the "White House."] + +Where _is_ Ruskin? and what do Morris and Sir William Drake? + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Oct. 17, 1883.] + +For, behold! beside the Thames, the work of desecration continues, and +the "White House" swarms with the mason of contract. + +The architectural _galbe_ that was the joy of the few, and the +bedazement of "the Board," crumbles beneath the pick, as did the north +side of St. Mark's, and history is wiped from the face of Chelsea. + +Shall no one interfere? Shall the interloper, even after his death, +prevail? + +Shall 'Arry, whom I have hewn down, still live among us by outrage of +this kind, and impose his memory upon our pavement by the public +perpetration of his posthumous philistinism? + +Shall the birthplace of art become the tomb of its parasite in +Tite Street? + +See to it, Atlas! lest, when Time, the healer of all the wounds I have +inflicted, shall for me have exacted those honours the prophet may not +expect while alive, and the inevitable blue disc, imbedded in the +walls, shall proclaim that "Here once dwelt" the gentle Master of all +that is flippant and fine in Art, some anxious student, reading, fall +out with Providence in his vain effort to reconcile such joyous +reputation with the dank and hopeless appearance of this "model +lodging," bequeathed to the people by the arrogance of 'Arry. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Red Rag_ + + + [Sidenote: "_Mr. Whistler, Cheyne Walk._"] + + [Sidenote: _The World_, May 22, 1878.] + +Why should not I call my works "symphonies," "arrangements," +"harmonies," and "nocturnes"? I know that many good people think my +nomenclature funny and myself "eccentric." Yes, "eccentric" is the +adjective they find for me. + +The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a +picture as a picture, apart from any story which it may be supposed to +tell. + +My picture of a "Harmony in Grey and Gold" is an illustration of my +meaning--a snow scene with a single black figure and a lighted tavern. +I care nothing for the past, present, or future of the black figure, +placed there because the black was wanted at that spot. All that I +know is that my combination of grey and gold is the basis of the +picture. Now this is precisely what my friends cannot grasp. + +They say, "Why not call it 'Trotty Veck,' and sell it for a round +harmony of golden guineas?"--naively acknowledging that, without +baptism, there is no ... market! + +But even commercially this stocking of your shop with the goods of +another would be indecent--custom alone has made it dignified. Not +even the popularity of Dickens should be invoked to lend an +adventitious aid to art of another kind from his. I should hold it a +vulgar and meretricious trick to excite people about Trotty Veck when, +if they really could care for pictorial art at all, they would know +that the picture should have its own merit, and not depend upon +dramatic, or legendary, or local interest. + +As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, +and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of +colour. + +The great musicians knew this. Beethoven and the rest wrote +music--simply music; symphony in this key, concerto or sonata in that. + +On F or G they constructed celestial harmonies--as harmonies--as +combinations, evolved from the chords of F or G and their minor +correlatives. + +This is pure music as distinguished from airs--commonplace and vulgar +in themselves, but interesting from their associations, as, for +instance, "Yankee Doodle," or "Partant pour la Syrie." + +Art should be independent of all clap-trap--should stand alone, and +appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this +with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, +patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with +it; and that is why I insist on calling my works "arrangements" and +"harmonies." + +Take the picture of my mother, exhibited at the Royal Academy as an +"Arrangement in Grey and Black." Now that is what it is. To me it is +interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the +public to care about the identity of the portrait? + +The imitator is a poor kind of creature. If the man who paints only +the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an +artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the +artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on +canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day; +to paint the man, in short, as well as his features; in arrangement of +colours to treat a flower as his key, not as his model. + +This is now understood indifferently well--at least by dressmakers. In +every costume you see attention is paid to the key-note of colour +which runs through the composition, as the chant of the Anabaptists +through the _Prophete_, or the Huguenots' hymn in the opera of that +name. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Rebuke_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 9, 1885.] + +No Birmingham election, no Chamberlain speech, no _Reynolds_ or +_Dispatch_ article, could bring the aristocracy more strongly into +ridicule and contempt than does the coarsely coloured cartoon of +"Newmarket" accompanying the winter number of _Vanity Fair_. From it +one learns that the Dukes, Duchesses, and turf persons generally, +frequenting the Heath, are a set of blob-headed stumpy dwarfs.... + + ATLAS. + + + + +_"Les points sur les i"_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 16, 1885.] + +I agree with you, O Atlas of ages, that completeness is a reason for +ceasing to exist; but even indignation might be less vague than is +your righteous anger at _Vanity's_ Christmas cartoon. Surely you might +have helped the people, who scarcely distinguish between the original +and impudent imitation, to know that this faded leaf is not from the +book of Carlo Pellegrini, the master who has taught them all--that +they can never learn? + +[Illustration] + + + + + +_MR. WHISTLER'S_ + + "_TEN O'CLOCK_" + + +[Illustration] + +_London_, 1888 + + + + +[Illustration] + + + _Delivered in London_ + Feb. 20, 1885 + + + _At Cambridge_ + March 24 + + + _At Oxford_ + April 30 + + + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +It is with great hesitation and much misgiving that I appear before +you, in the character of The Preacher. + +If timidity be at all allied to the virtue modesty, and can find +favour in your eyes, I pray you, for the sake of that virtue, accord +me your utmost indulgence. + +I would plead for my want of habit, did it not seem preposterous, +judging from precedent, that aught save the most efficient effrontery +could be ever expected in connection with my subject--for I will not +conceal from you that I mean to talk about Art. Yes, Art--that has of +late become, as far as much discussion and writing can make it, a sort +of common topic for the tea-table. + +Art is upon the Town!--to be chucked under the chin by the passing +gallant--to be enticed within the gates of the householder--to be +coaxed into company, as a proof of culture and refinement. + +If familiarity can breed contempt, certainly Art--or what is +currently taken for it--has been brought to its lowest stage of +intimacy. + +The people have been harassed with Art in every guise, and vexed with +many methods as to its endurance. They have been told how they shall +love Art, and live with it. Their homes have been invaded, their walls +covered with paper, their very dress taken to task--until, roused at +last, bewildered and filled with the doubts and discomforts of +senseless suggestion, they resent such intrusion, and cast forth the +false prophets, who have brought the very name of the beautiful into +disrepute, and derision upon themselves. + +Alas! ladies and gentlemen, Art has been maligned. She has naught in +common with such practices. She is a goddess of dainty thought--reticent +of habit, abjuring all obtrusiveness, purposing in no way to better +others. + +She is, withal, selfishly occupied with her own perfection +only--having no desire to teach--seeking and finding the beautiful in +all conditions and in all times, as did her high priest Rembrandt, +when he saw picturesque grandeur and noble dignity in the Jews' +quarter of Amsterdam, and lamented not that its inhabitants were not +Greeks. + +As did Tintoret and Paul Veronese, among the Venetians, while not +halting to change the brocaded silks for the classic draperies of +Athens. + +As did, at the Court of Philip, Velasquez, whose Infantas, clad in +inaesthetic hoops, are, as works of Art, of the same quality as the +Elgin marbles. + +No reformers were these great men--no improvers of the way of others! +Their productions alone were their occupation, and, filled with the +poetry of their science, they required not to alter their +surroundings--for, as the laws of their Art were revealed to them they +saw, in the development of their work, that real beauty which, to +them, was as much a matter of certainty and triumph as is to the +astronomer the verification of the result, foreseen with the light +given to him alone. In all this, their world was completely severed +from that of their fellow-creatures with whom sentiment is mistaken +for poetry; and for whom there is no perfect work that shall not be +explained by the benefit conferred upon themselves. + +Humanity takes the place of Art, and God's creations are excused by +their usefulness. Beauty is confounded with virtue, and, before a work +of Art, it is asked: "What good shall it do?" + +Hence it is that nobility of action, in this life, is hopelessly +linked with the merit of the work that portrays it; and thus the +people have acquired the habit of looking, as who should say, not +_at_ a picture, but _through_ it, at some human fact, that shall, or +shall not, from a social point of view, better their mental or moral +state. So we have come to hear of the painting that elevates, and of +the duty of the painter--of the picture that is full of thought, and +of the panel that merely decorates. + + * * * * * + +A favourite faith, dear to those who teach, is that certain periods +were especially artistic, and that nations, readily named, were +notably lovers of Art. + +So we are told that the Greeks were, as a people, worshippers of the +beautiful, and that in the fifteenth century Art was engrained in the +multitude. + +That the great masters lived in common understanding with their +patrons--that the early Italians were artists--all--and that the +demand for the lovely thing produced it. + +That we, of to-day, in gross contrast to this Arcadian purity, call +for the ungainly, and obtain the ugly. + +That, could we but change our habits and climate--were we willing to +wander in groves--could we be roasted out of broadcloth--were we +to do without haste, and journey without speed, we should again +_require_ the spoon of Queen Anne, and pick at our peas with the fork +of two prongs. And so, for the flock, little hamlets grow near +Hammersmith, and the steam horse is scorned. + +Useless! quite hopeless and false is the effort!--built upon fable, +and all because "a wise man has uttered a vain thing and filled his +belly with the East wind." + +Listen! There never was an artistic period. + +There never was an Art-loving nation. + +In the beginning, man went forth each day--some to do battle, some to +the chase; others, again, to dig and to delve in the field--all that +they might gain and live, or lose and die. Until there was found among +them one, differing from the rest, whose pursuits attracted him not, +and so he stayed by the tents with the women, and traced strange +devices with a burnt stick upon a gourd. + +This man, who took no joy in the ways of his brethren--who cared not +for conquest, and fretted in the field--this designer of quaint +patterns--this deviser of the beautiful--who perceived in Nature about +him curious curvings, as faces are seen in the fire--this dreamer +apart, was the first artist. + +And when, from the field and from afar, there came back the +people, they took the gourd--and drank from out of it. + +And presently there came to this man another--and, in time, others--of +like nature, chosen by the Gods--and so they worked together; and soon +they fashioned, from the moistened earth, forms resembling the gourd. +And with the power of creation, the heirloom of the artist, presently +they went beyond the slovenly suggestion of Nature, and the first vase +was born, in beautiful proportion. + +And the toilers tilled, and were athirst; and the heroes returned from +fresh victories, to rejoice and to feast; and all drank alike from the +artists' goblets, fashioned cunningly, taking no note the while of the +craftsman's pride, and understanding not his glory in his work; +drinking at the cup, not from choice, not from a consciousness that it +was beautiful, but because, forsooth, there was none other! + +And time, with more state, brought more capacity for luxury, and it +became well that men should dwell in large houses, and rest upon +couches, and eat at tables; whereupon the artist, with his artificers, +built palaces, and filled them with furniture, beautiful in proportion +and lovely to look upon. + +And the people lived in marvels of art--and ate and drank out of +masterpieces--for there was nothing else to eat and to drink out of, +and no bad building to live in; no article of daily life, of luxury, +or of necessity, that had not been handed down from the design of the +master, and made by his workmen. + +And the people questioned not, _and had nothing to say in the matter_. + +So Greece was in its splendour, and Art reigned supreme--by force of +fact, not by election--and there was no meddling from the outsider. +The mighty warrior would no more have ventured to offer a design for +the temple of Pallas Athene than would the sacred poet have proffered +a plan for constructing the catapult. + +And the Amateur was unknown--and the Dilettante undreamed of! + +And history wrote on, and conquest accompanied civilisation, and Art +spread, or rather its products were carried by the victors among the +vanquished from one country to another. And the customs of cultivation +covered the face of the earth, so that all peoples continued to use +what _the artist alone produced_. + +And centuries passed in this using, and the world was flooded with all +that was beautiful, until there arose a new class, who discovered +the cheap, and foresaw fortune in the facture of the sham. + +Then sprang into existence the tawdry, the common, the gewgaw. + +The taste of the tradesman supplanted the science of the artist, and +what was born of the million went back to them, and charmed them, for +it was after their own heart; and the great and the small, the +statesman and the slave, took to themselves the abomination that was +tendered, and preferred it--and have lived with it ever since! + +And the artist's occupation was gone, and the manufacturer and the +huckster took his place. + +And now the heroes filled from the jugs and drank from the bowls--with +understanding--noting the glare of their new bravery, and taking pride +in its worth. + +And the people--this time--had much to say in the matter--and all were +satisfied. And Birmingham and Manchester arose in their might--and Art +was relegated to the curiosity shop. + + * * * * * + +Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as +the keyboard contains the notes of all music. + +But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with +science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful--as the +musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he bring forth +from chaos glorious harmony. + +To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say +to the player, that he may sit on the piano. + +That Nature is always right, is an assertion, artistically, as untrue, +as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted. Nature is +very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be +said that Nature is usually wrong: that is to say, the condition of +things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a +picture is rare, and not common at all. + +This would seem, to even the most intelligent, a doctrine almost +blasphemous. So incorporated with our education has the supposed +aphorism become, that its belief is held to be part of our moral +being, and the words themselves have, in our ear, the ring of +religion. Still, seldom does Nature succeed in producing a picture. + +The sun blares, the wind blows from the east, the sky is bereft of +cloud, and without, all is of iron. The windows of the Crystal Palace +are seen from all points of London. The holiday-maker rejoices +in the glorious day, and the painter turns aside to shut his eyes. + +How little this is understood, and how dutifully the casual in Nature +is accepted as sublime, may be gathered from the unlimited admiration +daily produced by a very foolish sunset. + +The dignity of the snow-capped mountain is lost in distinctness, but +the joy of the tourist is to recognise the traveller on the top. The +desire to see, for the sake of seeing, is, with the mass, alone the +one to be gratified, hence the delight in detail. + +And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a +veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the +tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the +night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is +before us--then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the +cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to +understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has +sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son +and her master--her son in that he loves her, her master in that he +knows her. + +To him her secrets are unfolded, to him her lessons have become +gradually clear. He looks at her flower, not with the enlarging lens, +that he may gather facts for the botanist, but with the light of the +one who sees in her choice selection of brilliant tones and delicate +tints, suggestions of future harmonies. + +He does not confine himself to purposeless copying, without thought, +each blade of grass, as commended by the inconsequent, but, in the +long curve of the narrow leaf, corrected by the straight tall stem, he +learns how grace is wedded to dignity, how strength enhances +sweetness, that elegance shall be the result. + +In the citron wing of the pale butterfly, with its dainty spots of +orange, he sees before him the stately halls of fair gold, with their +slender saffron pillars, and is taught how the delicate drawing high +upon the walls shall be traced in tender tones of orpiment, and +repeated by the base in notes of graver hue. + +In all that is dainty and lovable he finds hints for his own +combinations, and thus is Nature ever his resource and always at his +service, and to him is naught refused. + +Through his brain, as through the last alembic, is distilled the +refined essence of that thought which began with the Gods, and which +they left him to carry out. + +Set apart by them to complete their works, he produces that +wondrous thing called the masterpiece, which surpasses in perfection +all that they have contrived in what is called Nature; and the Gods +stand by and marvel, and perceive how far away more beautiful is the +Venus of Melos than was their own Eve. + + * * * * * + +For some time past, the unattached writer has become the middleman in +this matter of Art, and his influence, while it has widened the gulf +between the people and the painter, has brought about the most +complete misunderstanding as to the aim of the picture. + +For him a picture is more or less a hieroglyph or symbol of +story. Apart from a few technical terms, for the display of which +he finds an occasion, the work is considered absolutely from a +literary point of view; indeed, from what other can he consider +it? And in his essays he deals with it as with a novel--a +history--or an anecdote. He fails entirely and most naturally to +see its excellences, or demerits--artistic--and so degrades Art, +by supposing it a method of bringing about a literary climax. + +It thus, in his hands, becomes merely a means of perpetrating +something further, and its mission is made a secondary one, even as a +means is second to an end. + +The thoughts emphasised, noble or other, are inevitably attached to +the incident, and become more or less noble, according to the +eloquence or mental quality of the writer, who looks the while, with +disdain, upon what he holds as "mere execution"--a matter belonging, +he believes, to the training of the schools, and the reward of +assiduity. So that, as he goes on with his translation from canvas to +paper, the work becomes his own. He finds poetry where he would feel +it were he himself transcribing the event, invention in the intricacy +of the _mise en scene_, and noble philosophy in some detail of +philanthropy, courage, modesty, or virtue, suggested to him by the +occurrence. + +All this might be brought before him, and his imagination be appealed +to, by a very poor picture--indeed, I might safely say that it +generally is. + +Meanwhile, the _painter's_ poetry is quite lost to him--the amazing +invention that shall have put form and colour into such perfect +harmony, that exquisiteness is the result, he is without +understanding--the nobility of thought, that shall have given the +artist's dignity to the whole, says to him absolutely nothing. + +So that his praises are published, for virtues we would blush to +possess--while the great qualities, that distinguish the one work from +the thousand, that make of the masterpiece the thing of beauty that it +is--have never been seen at all. + +That this is so, we can make sure of, by looking back at old reviews +upon past exhibitions, and reading the flatteries lavished upon men +who have since been forgotten altogether--but, upon whose works, the +language has been exhausted, in rhapsodies--that left nothing for the +National Gallery. + + * * * * * + +A curious matter, in its effect upon the judgment of these gentlemen, +is the accepted vocabulary of poetic symbolism, that helps them, by +habit, in dealing with Nature: a mountain, to them, is synonymous with +height--a lake, with depth--the ocean, with vastness--the sun, with +glory. + +So that a picture with a mountain, a lake, and an ocean--however poor +in paint--is inevitably "lofty," "vast," "infinite," and +"glorious"--on paper. + + * * * * * + +There are those also, sombre of mien, and wise with the +wisdom of books, who frequent museums and burrow in crypts; +collecting--comparing--compiling--classifying--contradicting. + +Experts these--for whom a date is an accomplishment--a hall mark, +success! + +Careful in scrutiny are they, and conscientious of +judgment--establishing, with due weight, unimportant +reputations--discovering the picture, by the stain on the +back--testing the torso, by the leg that is missing--filling folios +with doubts on the way of that limb--disputatious and dictatorial, +concerning the birthplace of inferior persons--speculating, in much +writing, upon the great worth of bad work. + +True clerks of the collection, they mix memoranda with ambition, and, +reducing Art to statistics, they "file" the fifteenth century, and +"pigeon-hole" the antique! + + * * * * * + +Then the Preacher "appointed"! + +He stands in high places--harangues and holds forth. + +Sage of the Universities--learned in many matters, and of much +experience in all, save his subject. + +Exhorting--denouncing--directing. + +Filled with wrath and earnestness. + +Bringing powers of persuasion, and polish of language, to +prove--nothing. + +Torn with much teaching--having naught to impart. + +Impressive--important--shallow. + +Defiant--distressed--desperate. + +Crying out, and cutting himself--while the gods hear not. + +Gentle priest of the Philistine withal, again he ambles pleasantly +from all point, and through many volumes, escaping scientific +assertion--"babbles of green fields." + + * * * * * + +So Art has become foolishly confounded with education--that all should +be equally qualified. + +Whereas, while polish, refinement, culture, and breeding, are in no +way arguments for artistic result, it is also no reproach to the most +finished scholar or greatest gentleman in the land that he be +absolutely without eye for painting or ear for music--that in his +heart he prefer the popular print to the scratch of Rembrandt's +needle, or the songs of the hall to Beethoven's "C minor Symphony." + +Let him have but the wit to say so, and not feel the admission a proof +of inferiority. + +Art happens--no hovel is safe from it, no Prince may depend upon it, +the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about, and puny efforts +to make it universal end in quaint comedy, and coarse farce. + +This is as it should be--and all attempts to make it otherwise are due +to the eloquence of the ignorant, the zeal of the conceited. + +The boundary line is clear. Far from me to propose to bridge it +over--that the pestered people be pushed across. No! I would save them +from further fatigue. I would come to their relief, and would lift +from their shoulders this incubus of Art. + +Why, after centuries of freedom from it, and indifference to it, +should it now be thrust upon them by the blind--until wearied and +puzzled, they know no longer how they shall eat or drink--how they +shall sit or stand--or wherewithal they shall clothe themselves--without +afflicting Art. + + +But, lo! there is much talk without! + + +Triumphantly they cry, "Beware! This matter does indeed concern us. We +also have our part in all true Art!--for, remember the 'one touch of +Nature' that 'makes the whole world kin.'" + +True, indeed. But let not the unwary jauntily suppose that Shakespeare +herewith hands him his passport to Paradise, and thus permits him speech +among the chosen. Rather, learn that, in this very sentence, he +is condemned to remain without--to continue with the common. + +This one chord that vibrates with all--this "one touch of Nature" that +calls aloud to the response of each--that explains the popularity of +the "Bull" of Paul Potter--that excuses the price of Murillo's +"Conception"--this one unspoken sympathy that pervades humanity, +is--Vulgarity! + +Vulgarity--under whose fascinating influence "the many" have elbowed +"the few," and the gentle circle of Art swarms with the intoxicated +mob of mediocrity, whose leaders prate and counsel, and call aloud, +where the Gods once spoke in whisper! + +And now from their midst the Dilettante stalks abroad. The amateur is +loosed. The voice of the aesthete is heard in the land, and catastrophe +is upon us. + +The meddler beckons the vengeance of the Gods, and ridicule threatens +the fair daughters of the land. + +And there are curious converts to a weird _culte_, in which all +instinct for attractiveness--all freshness and sparkle--all woman's +winsomeness--is to give way to a strange vocation for the +unlovely--and this desecration in the name of the Graces! + +Shall this gaunt, ill-at-ease, distressed, abashed mixture of +_mauvaise honte_ and desperate assertion call itself artistic, and +claim cousinship with the artist--who delights in the dainty, the +sharp, bright gaiety of beauty? + +No!--a thousand times no! Here are no connections of ours. + +We will have nothing to do with them. + +Forced to seriousness, that emptiness may be hidden, they dare not +smile-- + +While the artist, in fulness of heart and head, is glad, and laughs +aloud, and is happy in his strength, and is merry at the pompous +pretension--the solemn silliness that surrounds him. + +For Art and Joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and +ready hand--fearing naught, and dreading no exposure. + +Know, then, all beautiful women, that we are with you. Pay no heed, we +pray you, to this outcry of the unbecoming--this last plea for the +plain. + +It concerns you not. + +Your own instinct is near the truth--your own wit far surer guide than +the untaught ventures of thick heeled Apollos. + +What! will you up and follow the first piper that leads you down +Petticoat Lane, there, on a Sabbath, to gather, for the week, from the +dull rags of ages wherewith to bedeck yourselves? that, beneath +your travestied awkwardness, we have trouble to find your own dainty +selves? Oh, fie! Is the world, then, exhausted? and must we go back +because the thumb of the mountebank jerks the other way? + +Costume is not dress. + +And the wearers of wardrobes may not be doctors of taste! + +For by what authority shall these be pretty masters? Look well, and +nothing have they invented--nothing put together for comeliness' sake. + +Haphazard from their shoulders hang the garments of the +hawker--combining in their person the motley of many manners with the +medley of the mummers' closet. + +Set up as a warning, and a finger-post of danger, they point to the +disastrous effect of Art upon the middle classes. + + * * * * * + +Why this lifting of the brow in deprecation of the present--this +pathos in reference to the past? + +If Art be rare to-day, it was seldom heretofore. + +It is false, this teaching of decay. + +The master stands in no relation to the moment at which he +occurs--a monument of isolation--hinting at sadness--having no part in +the progress of his fellow men. + +He is also no more the product of civilisation than is the scientific +truth asserted dependent upon the wisdom of a period. The assertion +itself requires the _man_ to make it. The truth was from the +beginning. + +So Art is limited to the infinite, and beginning there cannot +progress. + +A silent indication of its wayward independence from all extraneous +advance, is in the absolutely unchanged condition and form of +implement since the beginning of things. + +The painter has but the same pencil--the sculptor the chisel of +centuries. + +Colours are not more since the heavy hangings of night were first +drawn aside, and the loveliness of light revealed. + +Neither chemist nor engineer can offer new elements of the +masterpiece. + + * * * * * + +False again, the fabled link between the grandeur of Art and the +glories and virtues of the State, for Art feeds not upon nations, and +peoples may be wiped from the face of the earth, but Art _is_. + +It is indeed high time that we cast aside the weary weight of +responsibility and co-partnership, and know that, in no way, do our +virtues minister to its worth, in no way do our vices impede its +triumph! + +How irksome! how hopeless! how superhuman the self-imposed task of the +nation! How sublimely vain the belief that it shall live nobly or art +perish. + +Let us reassure ourselves, at our own option is our virtue. Art we in +no way affect. + +A whimsical goddess, and a capricious, her strong sense of joy +tolerates no dulness, and, live we never so spotlessly, still may she +turn her back upon us. + +As, from time immemorial, she has done upon the Swiss in their +mountains. + +What more worthy people! Whose every Alpine gap yawns with tradition, +and is stocked with noble story; yet, the perverse and scornful one +will none of it, and the sons of patriots are left with the clock that +turns the mill, and the sudden cuckoo, with difficulty restrained in +its box! + +For this was Tell a hero! For this did Gessler die! + +Art, the cruel jade, cares not, and hardens her heart, and hies her +off to the East, to find, among the opium-eaters of Nankin, a favourite +with whom she lingers fondly--caressing his blue porcelain, and +painting his coy maidens, and marking his plates with her six +marks of choice--indifferent in her companionship with him, to all +save the virtue of his refinement! + +He it is who calls her--he who holds her! + +And again to the West, that her next lover may bring together the +Gallery at Madrid, and show to the world how the Master towers above +all; and in their intimacy they revel, he and she, in this knowledge; +and he knows the happiness untasted by other mortal. + +She is proud of her comrade, and promises that in after-years, others +shall pass that way, and understand. + +So in all time does this superb one cast about for the man worthy her +love--and Art seeks the Artist alone. + +Where he is, there she appears, and remains with him--loving and +fruitful--turning never aside in moments of hope deferred--of +insult--and of ribald misunderstanding; and when he dies she sadly +takes her flight, though loitering yet in the land, from fond +association, but refusing to be consoled.[33] + + [Note 33: And so have we the ephemeral influence of + the Master's memory--the afterglow, in which are warmed, + for a while, the worker and disciple.] + +With the man, then, and not with the multitude, are her intimacies; +and in the book of her life the names inscribed are few--scant, +indeed, the list of those who have helped to write her story of love +and beauty. + +From the sunny morning, when, with her glorious Greek relenting, +she yielded up the secret of repeated line, as, with his hand in hers, +together they marked in marble, the measured rhyme of lovely limb and +draperies flowing in unison, to the day when she dipped the Spaniard's +brush in light and air, and made his people live within their frames, +and _stand upon their legs_, that all nobility and sweetness, and +tenderness, and magnificence should be theirs by right, ages had gone +by, and few had been her choice. + +Countless, indeed, the horde of pretenders! But she knew them not. + +A teeming, seething, busy mass, whose virtue was industry, and whose +industry was vice! + +Their names go to fill the catalogue of the collection at home, of the +gallery abroad, for the delectation of the bagman and the critic. + + * * * * * + +Therefore have we cause to be merry!--and to cast away all +care--resolved that all is well--as it ever was--and that it is not +meet that we should be cried at, and urged to take measures! + +Enough have we endured of dulness! Surely are we weary of weeping, and +our tears have been cozened from us falsely, for they have called out +woe! when there was no grief--and, alas! where all is fair! + +We have then but to wait--until, with the mark of the Gods upon +him--there come among us again the chosen--who shall continue what has +gone before. Satisfied that, even were he never to appear, the story +of the beautiful is already complete--hewn in the marbles of the +Parthenon--and broidered, with the birds, upon the fan of Hokusai--at +the foot of Fusi-yama. + +[Illustration] + + + + +"_Rengaines!_" + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Feb. 21, 1885.] + +Last night, at Prince's Hall, Mr. Whistler made his first public +appearance as a lecturer on Art.... There were some arrows ... shot +off ... and (O, _mea culpa!_) at dress reformers most of all.... That +an artist will find beauty in ugliness, _le beau dans l'horrible_, is +now a commonplace of the schools.... I differ entirely from Mr. +Whistler. An Artist is not an isolated fact; he is the resultant of a +certain _milieu_ and a certain _entourage_, and can no more be born of +a nation that is devoid of any sense of beauty than a fig can grow +from a thorn or a rose blossom from a thistle.... The poet is the +supreme Artist, for he is the master of colour and of form, and the +real musician besides, and is lord over all life and all arts; and so +to the poet beyond all others are these mysteries known; to Edgar +Allan Poe and Baudelaire, not to Benjamin West and Paul Delaroche.... + + OSCAR WILDE. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + It is not enough that our simple Sunflower thrive on his + "thistle"--he has now grafted Edgar Poe on the "rose" + tree of the early American Market in "a certain milieu" + of dry goods and sympathy; and "a certain entourage" of + worship and wooden nutmegs. + + Born of a Nation, not absolutely "devoid of any sense of + beauty"--Their idol--cherished--listened to--and + understood! + + Foolish Baudelaire!--Mistaken Mallarme! + + [Illustration]] + + + + +_Tenderness in Tite Street_ + + + _TO THE POET:_ + + [Sidenote: _The World._] + +Oscar--I have read your exquisite article in the _Pall Mall_. Nothing +is more delicate, in the flattery of "the Poet" to "the Painter," than +the _naivete_ of "the Poet," in the choice of his Painters--Benjamin +West and Paul Delaroche! + +You have pointed out that "the Painter's" mission is to find "_le beau +dans l'horrible_," and have left to "the Poet" the discovery of +_"l'horrible" dans "le beau"_! + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_TO THE PAINTER:_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World._] + +Dear Butterfly--By the aid of a biographical dictionary, I made the +discovery that there were once two painters, called Benjamin West and +Paul Delaroche, who rashly lectured upon Art. As of their works +nothing at all remains, I conclude that they explained themselves +away. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + I do know a bird, who, like Oscar, with his head in the + sand, still believes in the undiscovered! + + If to be misunderstood is to be great, it was rash in + Oscar to reveal the source of his inspirations: the + "_Biographical Dictionary_!" + + [Illustration]] + +Be warned in time, James; and remain, as I do, incomprehensible. To be +great is to be misunderstood.--_Tout a vous_, + + OSCAR WILDE. + + + + +_To the Committee of the "National Art Exhibition"_ + + + [Sidenote: Letter read at a meeting of this Society, + associated for purposes of Art reform.] + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Nov. 17, 1888.] + +Gentlemen--I am naturally interested in any effort made among Painters +to prove that they are alive--but when I find, thrust in the van of +your leaders, the body of my dead 'Arry, I know that putrefaction +alone can result. When, following 'Arry, there comes on Oscar, you +finish in farce, and bring upon yourselves the scorn and ridicule of +your _confreres_ in Europe. + +What has Oscar in common with Art? except that he dines at our tables +and picks from our platters the plums for the pudding he peddles in +the provinces. Oscar--the amiable, irresponsible, esurient Oscar--with +no more sense of a picture than of the fit of a coat, has the courage +of the opinions ... of others! + + [Sidenote: Enclosed to the Poet, with a line: "Oscar, + you must really keep outside 'the radius'!" + + [Illustration]] + +With 'Arry and Oscar you have avenged the Academy. + + I am, Gentlemen, yours obediently, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Quand meme!_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Nov. 24, 1886.] + +Atlas, this is very sad! With our James vulgarity begins at home, and +should be allowed to stay there.--_A vous_, + + OSCAR WILDE + + + TO WHOM: + +"A poor thing," Oscar!--"but," for once, I suppose "your own." + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Philanthropy and Art_ + + +The _Saturday Review_ has not thought it disgraceful to once more +justify its title to be called the "Saturday Reviler." This time it is +not to break upon the wheel some poor butterfly of a lady traveller or +novelist, but to scoff at an aged painter of the highest repute--Mr. +Herbert--upon his retirement to the rank of "Honorary Academician," +after a career such as few, if any, painters living can boast. This it +pleases the "Reviler" to congratulate artists upon as "good news," +without a word or a thought of what the retiring Academician has done +in art, except to utter the contemptible untruth that "his resignation +means that he has found out that he is beaten," _not_ by the natural +failing of old age, but because he failed to impress such a writer as +this with the special exhibition of the works of his long life, that +was made some few years back to mark the completion of his last great +picture for the House of Lords, "The Judgment of Daniel." That +exhibition, which most people, who know anything about painting in its +highest style of religious and monumental art, thought a most +interesting display of a painter's career, is described by this most +genial of critics as "acres of pallid purple canvases, with wizened +saints and virgins in attitudinizing groups." + +Whether that collection of Mr. Herbert's works had merit or not is +matter of opinion which I am not concerned to dispute; but, as a +matter of fact, there were only _three_ small pictures in which the +virgin or any saints appeared; the other pictures, besides the two +large works of "The Delivery of the Law" and "The Judgment of Daniel," +painted for the nation, being historical subjects, such as the "Lear +Disinheriting Cordelia," a fresco of which is in the House of Lords; +"The Acquittal of the Seven Bishops," which the Corporation of Salford +purchased for their gallery of art; and several fine works of his +youth, such as the "Brides of Venice," a "Procession in Venice, 1528," +and others, which won for him his election to the Academy forty-five +years ago, when he had to compete with such men as are, unfortunately, +not to be found now among the candidates--Etty--Maclise--Dyce--Egg--and +Elmore. + +But the "_Saturday's_" art critic, if he ever saw this exhibition +at all, didn't go to see these pictures. As Goethe says, "the eye sees +what it came to see," and he went to see the "acres of purple +canvases, with their wizened saints," which were not there. No +matter--it suits his purpose to declare that they were, just as it +does to cram into a paragraph more ignorance, insolence, and false +assertions combined than is often to be met with even in this locality +of literature, where the editor seems to be surrounded with all the +prigs, and the pumps, and the snobs of the literary profession. + + _Truth_, Aug. 19, 1886. + + + + +"_Nous avons change tout cela!_" + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, Sept. 2, 1886.] + +Hoity-toity! my dear Henry!--What is all this? How can you startle the +"Constant Reader," of this cold world, by these sudden dashes into the +unexpected? + +Perceive also what happens. + +Sweet in the security of my own sense of things, and looking upon you +surely as the typical "_Sapem_" of modern progress and civilization, +here do I, in full Paris, _a l'heure de l'absinthe_, upon mischievous +discussion intent, call aloud for "_Truth_." + +"_Vous allez voir_," I say to the brilliant brethren gathered about my +table, "you shall hear the latest beautiful thing and bold, said by +our great Henry--'_capable de tout_,' beside whom '_ce coquin d'Habacuc_' +was mild indeed and usual!" And straightway to my stultification, I +find myself translating paragraphs of pathos and indignation, in which +a colourless old gentleman of the Academy is sympathized with, and +made a doddering hero of, for no better reason than that he _is_ +old--and those who would point out the wisdom and comfort of his +withdrawal into the wigwam of private life, sternly reproved and +anathematized and threatened with shame--until they might well expect +to find themselves come upon by the bears of the aged and irascible, +though bald-headed, Prophet, whom the children had thoughtfully urged +to "go up." + +Fancy the Frenchmen's astonishment as I read, and their placid +amusement as I attempted to point out that it was "meant drolly--that +_enfin_ you were a _mystificateur_!" + +Henry, why should I thus be mortified? Also, why this new _pose_, this +cheap championship of senility? + +How, in the name of all that is incompetent, do you find much virtue +in work spreading over more time! What means this affectation of +_naivete_? + +We all know that work excuses itself only by reason of its quality. + +If the work be foolish, it surely is not less foolish because an +honest and misspent lifetime has been passed in producing it. + +What matters it that the offending worker has grown old among us, and +has endeared himself to many by his caprices as ratepayer and +neighbour? + +Personally, he may have claims upon his surroundings; but, as the +painter of poor pictures, he is damned for ever. + +You see, my Henry, that it is not sufficient to be, as you are in wit +and wisdom, among us, amazing and astute; a very Daniel in your +judgment of many vexed questions; of a frankness and loyalty withal in +your crusade against abuses, that makes of the keen litigator a most +dangerous Quixote. + +This peculiar temperament gives you that superb sense of right, +_outside the realms of art_, that amounts to genius, and carries with +it continued success and triumph in the warfare you wage. + +But here it helps you not. And so you find yourself, for instance, +pleasantly prattling in print of "English Art." + +Learn, then, O! Henry, that there is no such thing as English Art. You +might as well talk of English Mathematics. Art is Art, and Mathematics +is Mathematics. + +What you call English Art, is not Art at all, but produce, of which +there is, and always has been, and always will be, a plenty, whether +the men producing it are dead and called ----, or (I refer you to your +own selection, far be it from me to choose)--or alive and called +----, whosoever you like as you turn over the Academy catalogue. + +The great truth, you have to understand, is that it matters not at all +whom you prefer in this long list. They all belong to the excellent +army of mediocrity; the differences between them being infinitely +small--merely microscopic--as compared to the vast distance between +any one of them and the Great. + +They are the commercial travellers of Art, whose works are their +wares, and whose exchange is the Academy. + +They pass and are forgotten, or remain for a while in the memory of +the worthies who knew them, and who cling to their faith in them, as +it flatters their own place in history--famous themselves--the friends +of the famous! + +Speak of them, if it please you, with uncovered head--even as in +France you would remove your hat as there passes by the hearse--but +remember it is from the conventional habit of awe alone, this show of +respect, and called forth generally by the casual corpse of the +commonest kind. + +PARIS, Aug. 21, 1886. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Inevitable_ + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, Sept. 9, 1886.] + +When I suggested you as the "Sapeur of modern progress," my dear +Henry, I thought to convey delicately my appreciation, wrapped in +graceful compliment. + +When I am made to say that you are the "Sapem" of +civilisation--whatever that may mean--I would seem to insinuate an +impertinence clothed in classic error. + +I trust that, if you forgive me, you will never pardon the +printer.--Always, + +[Illustration] + + + + +"_Noblesse oblige_" + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 31, 1884.] + +Atlas, look at this! It has been culled from the _Plumber and +Decorator_, of all insidious prints, and forwarded to me by the +untiring people who daily supply me with the thinkings of my critics. + +Read, Atlas, and let me execute myself: + +"The 'Peacock' drawing-room of a well-to-do shipowner, of Liverpool, +at Queen's Gate, London, is hand-painted, representing the noble bird +with wings expanded, painted by an Associate of the Royal Academy, at +a cost of L7000, and fortunate in claiming his daughter as his bride, +and is one of the finest specimens of high art in decoration in the +kingdom. The mansion is of modern construction." + +He is not guilty, this honest Associate! It was _I_, Atlas, who did +this thing--"alone I did it"--_I_ "hand-painted" this room in the +"mansion of modern construction." + +Woe is me! _I_ secreted, in the provincial shipowner's home, the +"noble bird with wings expanded"--_I_ perpetrated, in harmless +obscurity, "the finest specimen of high-art decoration"--and the +Academy is without stain in the art of its member. Also the immaculate +character of that Royal body has been falsely impugned by this wicked +"_Plumber_"! + +Mark these things, Atlas, that justice may be done, the innocent +spared, and history cleanly written. + +_Bon soir!_ + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Early Laurels_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _The Observer_, April 11, 1886.] + +Sir--In your report of the Graham sale of pictures at Messrs. Christie +and Manson's rooms, I read the following: + +"The next work, put upon the easel, was a 'Nocturne in blue and +silver,' by J. M. Whistler. It was received with hisses." + +May I beg, through your widely spread paper, to acknowledge the +distinguished, though I fear unconscious, compliment so publicly paid. + +It is rare that recognition, so complete, is made during the lifetime +of the painter, and I would wish to have recorded my full sense of +this flattering exception in my favour. + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Further Proposition_ + + + [Sidenote: _Art Journal_, 1887.] + +The notion that I paint flesh lower in tone than it is in nature, is +entirely based upon the popular superstition as to what flesh really +is--when seen on canvas; for the people never look at nature with any +sense of its pictorial appearance--for which reason, by the way, they +also never look at a picture with any sense of nature, but, +unconsciously from habit, with reference to what they have seen in +other pictures. + +Now, in the usual "pictures of the year" there is but one flesh, that +shall do service under all circumstances, whether the person painted +be in the soft light of the room or out in the glare of the open. The +one aim of the unsuspecting painter is to make his man "stand out" +from the frame--never doubting that, on the contrary, he should +really, and in truth absolutely does, stand _within_ the frame--and at +a depth behind it equal to the distance at which the painter sees +his model. The frame is, indeed, the window through which the painter +looks at his model, and nothing could be more offensively inartistic +than this brutal attempt to thrust the model on the hither-side of +this window! + +Yet this is the false condition of things to which all have become +accustomed, and in the stupendous effort to bring it about, +exaggeration has been exhausted--and the traditional means of the +incompetent can no further go. + +Lights have been heightened until the white of the tube alone +remains--shadows have been deepened until black alone is left. +Scarcely a feature stays in its place, so fierce is its intention of +"firmly" coming forth; and in the midst of this unseemly struggle for +prominence, the gentle truth has but a sorry chance, falling flat and +flavourless, and without force. + +The Master from Madrid, himself, beside this monster success of +mediocrity, would be looked upon as mild: _beau bien sure, mais pas +"dans le mouvement"_! + +Whereas, could the people be induced to turn their eyes but for a +moment, with the fresh power of comparison, upon their fellow-creatures +as they pass in the gallery, they might be made dimly to perceive +(though I doubt it, so blind is their belief in the bad), how +little they resemble the impudent images on the walls! how "quiet" in +colour they are! how "grey!" how "low in tone." And then it might be +explained to their riveted intelligence how they had mistaken +meretriciousness for mastery, and by what mean methods the imposture +had been practised upon them. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Opportunity_ + + +Cher Monsieur--M. ---- m'a remis votre petite planche--port d'Amsterdam +avec une epreuve. Elle est charmante et je serais fort heureux de la +faire paraitre dans l'article consacre a vos eaux fortes. Seulement, +je crois que vous avez mal interprete ma demande et que par le fait +nous ne nous entendons pas bien. Vous me demandez 63 guinees pour +cette planche, soit plus de 2000 francs, outre que le prix depasse +celui de la planche la plus chere parue dans la _Gazette_ depuis sa +fondation, y compris les chefs-d'oeuvre de Jacquemart et de +Gaillard, il n'est pas dans les habitudes de la maison, de payer les +planches d'artistes qui accompagnent un compte-rendu de leur oeuvre. +C'est ainsi que nous avons agi avec Meryon, Seymour Haden, Edwards, +Evershed, Legros, &c. + +Du reste, la planche pourrait rester votre propriete. Nous vous la +remettrions apres avoir fait notre tirage. Il est entendu qu'elle +serait acieree. + +Si ces conditions vous agreent, cher monsieur, je me ferai un +vrai plaisir de faire dans la _Gazette_ un article sur votre beau +talent d'aquafortiste. Dans le cas contraire, je me verrais avec mille +regrets, dans la necessite de vous renvoyer la planche que je me fusse +fait cependant un veritable honneur de publier. + +Veuillez agreer, cher monsieur, l'expression de mes meilleurs +sentiments. + + LE DIRECTEUR de la + _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_. + +PARIS, le 12 Juin 1878. + + + + +_The Opportunity Neglected_ + + +Cher Monsieur--Je regrette infiniment que mes moyens ne me permettent +pas de naitre dans votre Journal. + +L'article que vous me proposez, comme berceau, me couterait trop cher. + +Il me faudrait donc reprendre ma planche et rester inconnu jusqu'a la +fin des choses, puisque je n'aurais pas ete invente par la _Gazette +des Beaux Arts_.--Recevez, Monsieur, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Nostalgia_ + + + [Sidenote: Extract from a letter _a propos_ of Mr. + Whistler's contemplated visit to his native land.] + +... "Quite true--now that it is established as an improbability, it +becomes true! + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Oct. 13, 1886.] + +They tell me that December has been fixed upon, by the Fates, for my +arrival in New York--and, if I escape the Atlantic, I am to be wrecked +by the reporter on the pier. + +I shall be in his hands, even as is the sheep in the hands of his +shearer--for I have learned nothing from those who have gone +before--and been lost too! + +What will you! I know Matthew Arnold, and am told that he whispered +Truth exquisite, unheeded in the haste of America. + +And these others who have crossed the seas, that they might fasten +upon the hurried ones at home and gird at them with wisdom, +hysterically acquired, and administered, unblushingly, with a +suddenness of purpose that prevented their ever being listened to +here,--must I follow in their wake, to be met with suspicion +by my compatriots, and resented as the invading instructor? + +Heavens!--who knows!--also in the papers, where naturally I read only +of myself, I gather a general impression of offensive aggressiveness, +that, coupled with Chase's monstrous lampoon, has prepared me for the +tomahawk on landing. + +How dared he, Chase, to do this wicked thing?--and I who was charming, +and made him beautiful on canvas--the Masher of the Avenues. + +However, I may not put off until the age of the amateur has gone by, +but am to take with me some of those works which have won for me the +execration of Europe, that they may be shown to a country in which I +cannot be a prophet, and where I, who have no intention of being other +than joyous--improving no one--not even myself--will say again my "Ten +o'Clock," which I refused to repeat in London--_J'ai dit!_ + +This is no time for hesitation--one cannot continually disappoint a +Continent! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Insinuation_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _The Daily News_, Nov. 22, 1886.] + +My attention has been directed to a paragraph that has gone the round +of the papers, to the effect that Mr. John Burr and Mr. Reid have +"withdrawn from the Society of British Artists." This tardy statement +acquires undue significance at this moment, with a tendency to +mislead, implying, as it might, that these resignations were in +consequence of, and intended as a marked disapproval of, the +determined stand made by the Society in excluding from their coming +exhibition the masses of commonplace work hitherto offered to the +public in their galleries. No such importance attaches, however, to +their resignations, as these two gentlemen left Suffolk Street six +months ago. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Imputation_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _The Daily News_, Nov. 24, 1886.] + +Sir--Mr. Whistler denies that the recent policy of the Society of +British Artists was the cause of the secession of Messrs. Burr and +Reid from the ranks of that Society, and mentions in proof of his +correction that their resignation took place six months ago. He might +have gone further, and added that their secession corresponded in time +with his own election as president. It is well known to artists that +one, if not both, of these gentlemen left the Society knowing that +changes of policy, of which they could not approve, were inevitable +under the presidency of Mr. Whistler. It will be for the patrons of +the Suffolk Street Gallery to decide whether the more than +half-uncovered walls which will be offered to their view next week are +more interesting than the work of many artists of more than average +merit which will be conspicuous by its absence, owing to the selfish +policy inaugurated. + + A BRITISH ARTIST. + + + + +"_Autre Temps autre Moeurs_" + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _The Daily News_, Nov. 26, 1886.] + +Sir--The anonymous "British Artist" says that "Mr. Whistler denies +that the recent policy of the Society of British Artists was the cause +of the secession of Messrs. Reid and Burr from the ranks of that +Society." + +Far from me to propose to penetrate the motives of such withdrawal, +but what I did deny was that it could possibly be caused--as its +strangely late announcement seemed sweetly to insinuate--by the strong +determination to tolerate no longer the mediocre work that had +hitherto habitually swarmed the walls of Suffolk Street. + +This is a plain question of date, and I pointed out that these two +gentlemen left the Society six months ago--long before the +supervising committee were called upon to act at all, or make any +demonstration whatever. Your correspondent regrets that I do not "go +further," and straightway goes further himself, and scarcely fares +better, when, with a quaintness of _naivete_ rare at this moment, he +proposes that "it will be for the patrons of the gallery to decide +whether the more than half-uncovered walls are more interesting than +the works of many artists of more than the average merit." + +Now it will be for the patrons to decide absolutely nothing. It is, +and will always be, for the gentlemen of the hanging committee alone, +duly chosen, to decide whether empty space be preferable to poor +pictures--whether, in short, it be their duty to cover walls, merely +that walls may be covered--no matter with what quality of work. + +Indeed, the period of the patron has utterly passed away, and the +painter takes his place--to point out what he knows to be consistent +with the demands of his art--without deference to patrons or prejudice +to party. Beyond this, whether the "policy of Mr. Whistler and his +following" be "selfish or no," matters but little; but if the +policy of your correspondent's "following" find itself among the +ruthlessly rejected, his letter is more readily explained. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Talent in a Napkin_ + + + [Sidenote: Lecture before the Church Congress, Oct. 7, + 1885.] + +If those who talk and write so glibly as to the desirability of +artists devoting themselves to the representation of the naked human +form, only knew a tithe of the degradation enacted before the model is +sufficiently hardened to her shameful calling, they would for ever +hold their tongues and pens in supporting the practice. Is not +clothedness a distinct type and feature of our Christian faith? All +art representations of nakedness are out of harmony with it. + + J. C. HORSLEY, R.A. + + + + +_The Critic "Catching on"_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gaz._ Dec. 8, 1885.] + +Mr. Whistler is again, in a sense, the mainstay of the Society +(British Artists), partly through his own individuality and partly +through the innovations he has introduced.... He has several oil and +pastel pictures, very slight in themselves, of the female nude, +dignified and graceful in line and charmingly chaste, entitled +"Harmony," "Caprice," and "Note." Beneath the latter Mr. Whistler has +written, "Horsley _soit qui mal y pense_." + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Meant "friendly."] + +"This is not," said the artist, "what people are sure to call it, +'Whistler's little joke.' On the contrary, it is an indignant protest +against the idea that there is any immorality in the nude." + + + + +_Ingratitude_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Dec. 10, 1885.] + +No, kind sir--_trop de zele_ on the part of your representative--for I +surely never explain, and Art certainly requires no "indignant +protest" against the unseemliness of senility. "Horsley _soit qui mal +y pense_" is meanwhile a sweet sentiment--why more--and why +"morality"? + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Complacent One_ + + + [Sidenote: _Magazine of Art_, Dec. 1887.] + +Mr. Whistler has issued a brown-paper portfolio of half a dozen +"Notes," reproduced in marvellous facsimile. These "Notes" are +delightful sketches in Indian ink and crayon, masterly so far as they +go--but, then, they go such a little way ... the "Notes" can only be +regarded as painter's raw material, interesting as correct sketches, +but unworthy the glories of facsimile reproduction, and imposing +margin.... The chief honours of the portfolio belong to the +publishers.... + + + + +_The Critic-flaneur_ + + + [Sidenote: _Sunday Times_, Jan. 15, 1888.] + +Sir,--You, who are, I perceive, in your present brilliant incarnation, +an undaunted and undulled pursuer of pleasing truths, listen, I pray +you, while again I indicate, with sweet argument, the alternative of +the bewildered one. + +Notably, it is not necessary that the "Art Critic" should distinguish +between the real and the "reproduction," or otherwise understand +anything of the matter of which he writes--for much shall be forgiven +him--yet surely, as I have before now pointed out, he might inquire. + +Had the expounder of exhibitions, travelling for the _Magazine of +Art_, asked the Secretary in the galleries of the Royal Society of +British Artists, he would have been told that the "Notes" on the +staircase, and in the vestibule, are not "delightful sketches in +Indian ink and crayon ... _reproduced in marvellous facsimile_ by +Boussod, Valadon & Co.... unworthy the glories of facsimile +reproduction, and imposing margin" ... while "the chief honours of the +portfolio, however, belong to the publishers"--but are, disconcerting +as I acknowledge it to be, _themselves the lithographs from nature_, +drawn on the stone upon the spot. + +Thus easily provided with paragraph, he would also have been spared +the mortification of rebuke from his well-meaning and embarrassed +employers. + +Let the gentleman be warned--let him learn that the foolish critic +only,--_looks_--and brings disaster, upon his paper--the safe and +well-conducted one "informs himself." + +Yours, Sir, gently, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Played-out Policy_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR + OF THE "PALL MALL GAZETTE":_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Dec. 9, 1886.] + +Sir--In your courageous crusade against the Demon Dulness and his +preposterous surroundings, I think it well that there should be +delivered into your hands certain documents for immediate publication, +that your readers may be roused quickly, and hear again how well +fenced in are the foolish in strong places--and how greatly to be +desired is their exposure, discomfiture, and death--that Truth may +prevail. + +It happened in this way. The criticism in the _Times_ called for +instant expostulation, and my answer was consequently sent in to the +Editor, who forthwith returned it, regretting "that its tone prevented +its appearance in the paper." ... I thereupon withdrew to write the +following note to the Editor in person:-- + +"Dear Sir--Permit me to call your courteous attention to the fact that +the enclosed letter to the Editor of the _Times_ is in reply to +an article that appeared in your paper--and that, as I sign my name +in full, I alone am responsible for its tone or form; indeed, that +such is its tone and form, is because it is my letter. + +"In common fairness the answer to, or comment upon, any statements +made in your paper should be published in your paper, as proper +etiquette prevents its insertion in any other journal. + +"Also, you surely would not propose to dictate certain forms or styles +in which alone the columns of the _Times_ are to be approached--as who +should say all other savour of sacrilege!--or acquiescence alone would +do, and you would have to write all your letters yourselves. + +"My letter concerns the effect produced by criticism of a commonplace +and inferior kind, wholly unworthy the first paper in England--and I +am startled to learn, and still unwilling to believe, that the _Times_ +would shun all ventilation and refuse to publish any letter as its +sole means of screening its staff or protecting its writers. + +"I submit that the tone of my letter sins against no laws that are +accepted in antagonism--that it offends in no way the etiquette of +attack known to gentlemen. + +"I beg, therefore, again, that if there be still time for its +insertion, you will have it printed in your issue of to-morrow, or +will say that it shall appear in the _Times_ of Thursday morning. + + "I am, dear Sir, + "Very faithfully, + "J. MCNEILL WHISTLER." + +I was now told, "with the Editor's compliments," "that my letter +should be considered." Taking this in complete good faith, I left the +office, to discover the next day in print a remnant of the letter in +question; that, by itself, entirely did away with sufficient reason +for its being there at all. The two ensuing notes explain themselves: + + To J. MCN. WHISTLER, Esq.: + + "The Editor of the _Times_ has inserted in to-day's paper the + only portion of Mr. Whistler's letter of November 30 which + appears to have any claim to publication. + + "PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, Dec. 1, 1886." + + + "To the Editor of the _Times_: + + "Dear Sir--I beg to acknowledge the consummate sense of + opportunity displayed by the Editor of the _Times_, in his + cunning production of a part of my letter. + + "Amazing! _Mes compliments!_" + +[Illustration] + +Without further comment I hand you a copy of the rejected letter. + + "To the Editor of the _Times_.--Sir--In his article upon the + Society of British Artists, your Art gentleman ventures the + opinion of the 'plain man.' + + "That such opinion is out of place and stultifying in a question + of Art never occurs to him, and it is therefore frankly cited as, + in a way, conclusive. + + "The _naif_ train of thought that justified the importance + attached to this poor 'plain' opinion at all would seem to be the + same that pervades the writing throughout; until it becomes + difficult to discover where the easy effrontery and + self-sufficiency of the 'plain one,' nothing doubting, cease, and + the wit and wisdom of the experienced expert begin--so that one + unconsciously confounds the incautious critic with the plausible + plain person, who finally becomes the same authority. + + "Blind plainness certainly is the characteristic of the solemn + censure upon the fine work of Mr. Stott, of Oldham--plain + blindness the omission of all mention of Mr. Ludovici's dainty + dancing-girl. + + "Bewilderment among paintings is naturally the fate of the 'plain + man,' but, when put forth in the _Times_, his utterances, however + empty, acquire a semblance of sense; so that while he gravely + descants with bald assurance upon the engineering of the + light in the galleries, and the decoration of the walls, the + reader stands a chance of being misled, and may not discover at + once that the 'plain' writer is qualified by ignorance alone to + continue. + + "Permit me, therefore, to rectify inconsequent impressions, and + tell your readers that there is nothing 'tentative' in the + 'arrangement' of colour, walls, or drapery--that the battens + should _not_ 'be removed'--that they are meant to remain, not + only for their use, but as bringing parallel lines into play that + subdivide charmingly the lower portion of the walls and add to + their light appearance--that the whole 'combination' is + complete--and that the 'plain man' is, as usual, 'out of it.'--I + am, Sir, etc., + + "J. MCNEILL WHISTLER." + +The question of fair dealing and good manners in this matter I could +not leave in better hands than your own, and I will only add that +hitherto I have always met with the utmost readiness on the part of +the press to receive into their columns any reply, however opposed to +assertions of their own. + +Surely it is but poor policy this peremptory attempt to maintain in +authority the weak and blundering one, that he may destroy himself +and bring sorrow upon his people. + +Rather let him be thrust from his post, that he may be "brayed in a +mortar among wheat with a pestle"--that the Just be assuaged and +foolishness depart from among us. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Interview with an ex-President_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, June 11, 1888.] + +The adverse vote by which the Royal Society of British Artists +transferred its oath of allegiance from Mr. Whistler is for the time +the chief topic of conversation in artistic circles.... We instructed +our representative to visit Mr. Whistler to obtain his explanation of +the affair. + +"The state of affairs?" said Mr. Whistler, in his light and airy way, +raising his eyebrows and twinkling his eyes, as if it were all the +best possible fun in the world; "why, my dear sir, there's positively +_no_ state of affairs at all. Contrary to public declaration, there's +actually nothing chaotic in the whole business; on the contrary, +everything is in order, and just as it should be. The survival of the +fittest as regards the presidency, don't you see, and, well--Suffolk +Street is itself again! A new government has come in, and, as I told +the members the other night, I congratulate the Society on the result +of their vote, for no longer can it be said that the right man is +in the wrong place. No doubt their pristine sense of undisturbed +somnolence will again settle upon them after the exasperated mental +condition arising from the unnatural strain recently put upon the old +ship. Eh? what? Ha! ha!" + +"You do not then consider the Society as out of date? You do not +think, as is sometimes said, that the establishment of the Grosvenor +took away the _raison d'etre_ and original intention of the +Society--that of being a foil to the Royal Academy?" + +"I can hardly say what was originally intended, but I do know that it +was originally full of hope, and even determination; shown in a manner +by their getting a Royal Charter--the only art society in London, I +believe, that has one. + +"But by degrees it lapsed into a condition of incapacity--a sort of +secondary state,--do you see, till it acknowledged itself a species of +_creche_ for the Royal Academy. Certain it is that when I came into it +the prevalent feeling among all the men was that their best work +should go to 'another place.' + +"I felt that this sense of inferiority was fatal to the well-being of +the place. + +"For that reason I attempted to bring about a sense of _esprit de +corps_ and ambition, which culminated in what might be called +'my first offence'--by my proposition that members belonging to other +societies should hold no official position in ours. I wanted to make +it an art centre," continued Mr. Whistler, with a sudden vigour and an +earnestness for which the public would hardly give credit to this +Master of Badinage and Apostle of Persiflage; "they wanted it to +remain a shop, although I said to them, 'Gentlemen, don't you perceive +that as shopmen you have already failed, don't you see, eh?' But they +were under the impression that the sales decreased under my methods +and my _regime_, and ignored the fact that sales had declined all over +the country from all sorts of causes, commercial, and so on. + +Their only chance lay in the art tone of the place, for the +old-fashioned pictures had ceased to become saleable wares--buyers +simply wouldn't buy them. But members' work I _couldn't_, by the +rules, eliminate--only the bad outsiders were choked off." + +"Then how do you explain the bitterness of all the opposition?" + +"A question of 'pull devil, pull baker,' and the devil has gone and +the bakers remain in Suffolk Street! Ha! ha! Here is a list of the +fiendish party who protested against the thrusting forth of their +president in such an unceremonious way:-- + +"Alfred Stevens, Theodore Roussel, Nelson Maclean, Macnab, Waldo +Story, A. Ludovici, jun., Sidney Starr, Francis James, W. A. Rixon, +Aubrey Hunt, Moffatt P. Lindner, E. G. Girardot, Ludby, Arthur Hill, +Llewellyn, W. Christian Symons, C. Wyllie, A. F. Grace, J. E. Grace, +J. D. Watson, Jacomb Hood, Thornley, J. J. Shannon, and Charles Keen. +Why, the very flower of the Society! and whom have they left--_bon +Dieu!_ whom have they left?" + +"It was a hard fight then?" + +"My dear sir, they brought up the maimed, the halt, the lame, and the +blind--literally--like in Hogarth's 'Election;' they brought up +everything but corpses, don't you know!--very well!" + +"But all this hardly explains the bitterness of the feud and personal +enmity to you." + +"What? Don't you see? My presidential career had in a manner been a +busy one. When I took charge of the ship I found her more or less +water-logged. Well, I put the men to the pumps, and thoroughly shook +up the old vessel; had her re-rigged re-cleaned, and painted--and +finally I was graciously permitted to run up the Royal Standard to the +masthead, and brought her fully to the fore, ready for action--as +became a Royal flagship! And as a natural result mutiny at once set +in! + +"Don't you see," he continued, with one of his strident laughs, +"what might be considered, by the thoughtless, as benefits, were +resented, by the older and wiser of the crew, as innovations and +intrusions of an impertinent and offensive nature. But the immediate +result was that interest in the Society was undeniably developed, not +only at home, but certainly abroad. Notably in Paris all the art +circle was keenly alive to what was taking place in Suffolk Street; +and, although their interest in other institutions in this country had +previously flagged, there was the strong willingness to take part in +its exhibitions. + +For example, there was Alfred Stevens, who showed his own sympathy +with the progressive efforts by becoming a member. And look at the +throngs of people that crowded our private views--eh? ha! ha! what! +But what will you!--the question is, after all, purely a parochial +one--and here I would stop to wonder, if I do not seem pathetic and +out of character, why the Artist is naturally an object of +vituperation to the Vestryman?--Why am _I_--who, of course, as you +know, am charming--why am I the pariah of my parish? + +"Why should these people do other than delight in me?--Why should they +perish rather than forgive the one who had thrust upon them honour and +success?" + +"And the moral of it all?" + +Mr. Whistler became impressive--almost imposing--as he stroked his +moustache, and tried to hide a smile behind his hand. + +"The organisation of this 'Royal Society of British Artists' as shown +by its very name, tended perforce to this final convulsion, resulting +in the separation of the elements of which it was composed. They could +not remain together, and so you see the 'Artists' have come out, and +the 'British' remain--and peace and sweet obscurity are restored to +Suffolk Street!--Eh? What? Ha! ha!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Statistics_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, July 6, 1888.] + +Since our interview with Mr. Whistler curious statements have been set +afloat concerning the question of finance ... giving circumstantial +evidence of the disaster brought upon the Society by the enforcement +of the Whistlerian policy:-- + +This evidence, which is very interesting, is as follows:--The sales of +the Society during the year 1881 were under L5000; 1882, under L6000; +1883, under L7000; 1884, under L8000; 1885 (the first year of Mr. +Whistler's rule), they fell to under L4000; 1886, under L3000; 1887, +under L2000; and the present year, under L1000. + +On the other hand, the fact of the Society having made itself +responsible to Mr. Whistler for a loan raised by him to meet a sudden +expenditure for repairs, is also true; but the unwisdom of the +president and members of any society having money transactions +between them need hardly be commented upon here.... + +Mr. Wyke Bayliss, the new president, strikes one as being "a strong +man"--shrewd, logical, and self-restrained. The author of several +books and pamphlets on the more imaginative realm of art, he is, one +would say, as much permeated by religion as he is by art; to both of +these qualities, curiously enough, his canvases, which usually deal +with cathedral interiors of cheery hue, bear witness. + +The hero of three Bond Street "one-man exhibitions," a Board-school +chairman, a lecturer, champion chess-player of Surrey, a member of the +Rochester Diocesan Council, a Shaksperian student, a Fellow of the +Society of Cyclists, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians, and +public orator of Noviomagus ... he is surely one of the most versatile +men who ever occupied a presidential chair.... + + + + +_A Retrospect_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR + OF THE "PALL MALL GAZETTE:"_ + +Sir,--The Royal Society of British Artists is, perhaps, by this time +again unknown to your agitated readers--but I would recall a brilliant +number of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ (July 1888), in which mischievous +amusement was sought, with statistics from a newly elected +President--Mr. Bayliss (Wyke). + +Believing it to be, in an official and dull way, more becoming that +the appointed Council of this same Society should deal with the +resulting chaos, I have, until now, waited for a slight washing of +hands, as who should say, on their part as representing the gentle +deprecation of, I assure you, the respectable body in Suffolk Street. + +Well, no!--It was doubtless adjudged wiser, or milder, to "live it +down," and now it, I really believe, behoves me, in a weary way, +to remind you of the document in question, and, for the sake of +commonplace, uninteresting, and foolish fact, to lift up my parable +and declare fallacious that which was supposed to be true, and +generally to bore myself, and perhaps even you, the all-patient one, +with what, I fear, we others care but little for--parish matters. + +In the article, then, entitled "The Royal Society of British Artists +and its Future--An Interview with the New President"--a most appalling +volley of figures was fired off at _brule-pour-point_ distance. Under +this deafening detonation I, having no habit, sat for days +incapable--dreaming vaguely that when a President should see fit to +wash his people's linen in the open, there must be indeed crime at +least on the part of the offender at whose instigation such official +sacrifice of dignity could come about. _I_ was the offender, and for a +while I sincerely believed that disaster had been brought upon this +Royal Society by my own casual self. But behold, upon closer +inspection, these threatening figures are meretricious and misleading, +as was the building account of the early Philanthropist who, in the +days of St. Paul, meant well, and was abruptly discouraged by that +clear-headed apostle. + +Mr. Bayliss tells us that: "The sales of the Society during the +year 1881 were under," whatever that may mean, "L5000; 1882, under +L6000; 1883, under L7000; 1884, under L8000; in 1885 ('the first year +of Mr. Whistler's rule') they fell to under L4000; 1886, under L3000; +1887, under L2000; and the present year, under L1000." + +But also Mr. Bayliss takes this rare occasion of attention, to assert +his various qualifications for his post as head of painters in the +street of Suffolk, and so we learn that he is:-- + +"Chairman of the Board-school in his own district," "Champion +chess-player of Surrey," "A member of the Diocesan Council of +Rochester," "Fellow of the Society of Cyclists," and "Public Orator of +Noviomagus." + +As chess-player he may have intuitively bethought himself of a +move--possibly the happy one,--who knows?--which in the provinces +obtained him a cup; as Diocesan Councilman he may have supposed +Rochester indifferent to the means used for an end; but as Public +Cyclist of the Royal Society of Noviomagus his experience must be +opposed to any such bluff as going his entire pile on a left bower +only! + +When I recovered my courage--what did I find?--first my unimpaired +intelligence, and then my memory. + +Now, to my intelligence, it becomes patent that the chairman of a +Clapham School-board, proposes by his figures to prove, that the +income of the sacrificed Society had of late years steadily +increased:--"In 1881, under L5000; 1882, under L6000; 1883, under +L7000; 1884, under L8000," until, under the baneful reign of terror +and Whistler in 1885--"the first year" of the sacrilegious era--the +receipts fell to L4000--and have continued to decrease until, in this +present year, they fall to the miserable sum of under a thousand +pounds--a revelation! discreet, statesmanlike, and worthy the orator +at his best! + +Unfortunately for the triumph of such audacious demonstration, my +revived memory points out that Mr. Whistler was only elected President +in June 1886, and, in conformity with the ancient rules and amusing +customs of the venerable body, only came into office six months +afterwards--that is, practically, in January 1887. Again, with this +last exhibition, he, as everybody knows, had nothing whatever to do. + +Immediately, therefore, the conclusion is "quite other" than that put +forth by the Cyclist of his suburb, and we arrive at the, for once, not +unamusing "fact" that the disastrous and simple Painter Whistler only +took in hand the reins of government at least a year after the former +driver had been pitched from his box, and half the money-bags had +been already lost!--from L8000 to L4000 at one fatal swoop! and the +beginning of the end had set in! Indeed, this may have been one of the +strong reasons for his own election by an overwhelming minority of +hysterical and panic-stricken passengers. + +Now, though he did his best, and cried aloud that the coach was safe, +and called it Royal, and proposed to carry the mail, confidence, +difficult to restore, waited for proof, and although fresh paint was +spread upon the panels, and the President coachman wore his hat with +knowing air, on one side and handled the ribbons lightly, and dandled +the drag, inviting jauntily the passer-by, the public recognized the +ramshackle old "conveyance," and scoffingly refused to trust +themselves in the hearse. + +"Four thousand pounds!" down it went--L3000--L2000--the figures are +Wyke's--and this season, the ignominious "L1000 or under," is none of +my booking! and when last I saw the mad machine it was still cycling +down the hill. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The New Dynasty_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Morning Post._] + +Sir--Pray accept my compliments, and be good enough to inform me at +once by whose authority, and upon what pretence, the painting, +designed and executed by myself, upon the panel at the entrance of the +galleries of Suffolk Street, has been defaced. Tampering with the work +of an artist, however obscure, is held to be, in what might be called +the international laws of the whole Art world, so villainous an +offence, that I must at present decline to entertain the +responsibility of the very distinguished and Royal Society of British +Artists, for what must be due to the rash, and ill-considered, zeal of +some enthusiastic and untutored underling. + +Awaiting your reply, I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient, +humble servant, + +[Illustration] + + [Sidenote: _Telegram to Council of Royal Society of + British Artists:_ + + "Congratulations upon dignity maintained as Artists left + in charge of a brother Artist's work, and upon graceful + bearing as officers toward their late + President."--WHISTLER.] + + + TO THE HON. SECRETARY + OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS. + March 30, 1889. + + + + +_An Embroidered Interview_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 3, 1889.] + +"Well, Mr. Whistler, they say they only painted out your butterfly +from the signboard, and changed the date. What do you say?" + +"What do I say? That they have been guilty of an act of villainous +Vandalism." + +"Will you tell me the history of the Board?" + +"When I was elected to the presidency of the Society I offered to +paint a signboard which should proclaim to the passer-by the name and +nature of the Society. My offer was accepted, and the Board was sent +down to my studio, where I treated it as I should a most distinguished +sitter--as a picture or an etching--throwing my artistic soul into the +Board, which gradually became a Board no longer, as it grew into a +picture. You say they say it was only a butterfly. Mendacity could go +no further. I painted a _lion_ and a butterfly. The lion lay with the +butterfly--a harmony in gold and red, with which I had taken as much +trouble as I did with the best picture I ever painted. And now +they have clothed my golden lion clumsily, awkwardly, and timorously +with a dirty coat of black. My butterfly has gone, the checks and +lines, which I had treated decoratively, have disappeared. Am I not +justified in calling it a piece of gross Vandalism?" + +"What course would you have recommended? You had gone; the Board +remained: perhaps it was weather-beaten--what could they do?" + +"They should have taken the Board down, sir, taken the Board down, not +dared to destroy my work--taken the Board down, returned it to me, and +got another Board of their own to practise on. Good heavens! You say +to my face it was only a Board. You say they _only_ painted out my +butterfly. It is as if you were condoling with a man who had been +robbed and stripped, and said to him, 'Never mind. It is well it is no +worse. You have escaped easily. Why, you might have had your throat +cut.'" + +And Mr. Whistler's Mephistophelian form disappeared into the black of +the night. + + + + +_The "Pall Mall" Puzzled_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 4, 1889.] + +Mr. Whistler begs me to insert the following note exactly as it +stands. I haven't the slightest idea what it means, but here it is +with "_mes compliments_":-- + +"TO THE INTERVIEWER OF THE _Pall Mall Gazette_: + +"Good! very good! Prettily put, as becomes the _Pall Mall_, and yet +you cannot be reproached with being 'too fine for your audience!' + +"I wish I _could_ say these things as you do for me, even at the risk +of, at last, being understood. _Mes Compliments!_" + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Official Bumbledom_ + + + [Sidenote: To the Editor of _The Morning Post_] + +Sir--As you have considered Mr. Whistler's letter worthy of +publication, I ask you to complete the publication by inserting this +simple statement of the facts as they occurred. The notice board of +the Royal Society of British Artists bears on a red ground, in letters +of gold, the title of the Society. To this Mr. Whistler, during his +presidency, added with his own hand a decorative device of a lion and +a butterfly. On the eve of our private view it was found that, while +the title of the Society, being in pure gold, remained untarnished, +Mr. Whistler's designs, being executed in spurious metals, had nearly +disappeared, and what little remained of them was of a dirty brown. +The board could not be put up in that state. The lion, however, was +not so badly drawn as to make it necessary to do anything more than +restore it in permanent colour, and that has accordingly been done. +But as the notice board was no longer the actual work of Mr. +Whistler, it would manifestly have been improper to have left the +butterfly (his well-known signature) attached to it, even if it had +not appeared in so crushed a state. The soiled butterfly was therefore +effaced. + + Yours, &c., + WYKE BAYLISS, + CLAPHAM. +April 1, 1889. + + + + +"_Aussi que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?_" + + + [Sidenote: _The Morning Post._] + +Sir--I have read Mr. Bayliss's letter, and am disarmed. I feel the +folly of kicking against the parish pricks. These things are right in +Clapham, by the common. + + "_V'la ce que c'est, c'est bien fait-- + Fallait pas qu'il y aille! fallait pas qu'il y aille!_" + +And when, one of these days, all traces of history shall, by dint of +much turpentine, and more Bayliss, have been effaced from the board +that "belongs to us," I shall be justified, and it will be boldly +denied by some dainty student that the delicate butterfly was _ever_ +"soiled" in Suffolk Street. + + Yours, &c., + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Royal Society of British Artists and their Signboard_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Athenaeum_, April 27, 1889.] + +Sir--The moment has now arrived when, it seems to me proper that, in +your journal, one of the recognized Art organs of the country, should +be recorded the details of an incident in which the element of grave +offence is, not unnaturally, quite missed by the people in their +indignation at the insignificance of the object to which public +attention has so unwarrantably been drawn--a "notice board"!--the +common sign of commerce! + +Now, however slight might be the value of the work in question +destroyed, it is surely of startling interest to know that _work may +be destroyed_, or worse still, defaced and tampered with, at the +present moment in full London, with the joyous approval of the major +part of the popular press. + +I leave to your comment the fact that in this instance the act is +committed with the tacit consent of a body of gentlemen officially +styled "artists," at the instigation of their president, as he +unblushingly acknowledges, and will here distinctly state that the +"notice board of the Royal Society of British Artists" _did not_ "bear +on a red ground, in letters of gold, the title of the Society," and +that "to this Mr. Whistler, during his presidency," _did not_ "add +with his own hand a decorative device of a lion and a butterfly." This +damning evidence, though in principle irrelevant--for what becomes of +the soul of a "Diocesan member of the Council of Clapham" is, +artistically, a matter of small moment--I nevertheless bring forward +as the only one that will at present be at all considered or even +understood. + +The "notice board" was of the familiar blue enamel, well known in +metropolitan use, with white lettering, announcing that the exhibition +of the Incorporated Society of British Artists was held above, and +that for the sum of one shilling the public might enter. + +I myself mixed the "red ground," and myself placed, "in letters of +gold, the" _new_ "title" upon it--in proper relation to the decorative +scheme of the whole design, of which it formed naturally an +all-important feature. The date was that of the Society's Royal grant, +and in commemoration of its new birth. With the offending Butterfly, +it has now been effaced in one clean sweep of independence, while the +lion, "not so badly drawn," was differently dealt with--it was +found not "necessary to do anything more than restore it in permanent +colour, and that," with a bottle of Brunswick black, "has accordingly +been done;" and, as Mr. Bayliss adds, with unpremeditated truth, in +the thoughtless pride of achievement, "the notice board was no longer +the actual work of Mr. Whistler!" + +This exposure of Mr. Bayliss's direct method I have wickedly withheld, +in order that the Philistine impulse of the country should declare +itself in all its freshness of execration before it could be checked +by awkward discovery of mere mendacity, and a timid sense of danger, +called justice. + +Everything has taken place as I pleasantly foresaw, and there is by +this time, with the silent exception of one or two cautious dailies, +scarcely a lay paper in the land that has been able to refrain from +joining in the hearty yell of delight at the rare chance of coarsely, +publicly, and safely insulting an artist! In this eagerness to affront +the man they have irretrievably and ridiculously committed themselves +to open sympathy with the destruction of his work. + +I wish coldly to chronicle this fact in the archives of the _Athenaeum_ +for the future consideration of the cultured New Zealander. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Official Letter_ + + +Sir,--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, officially +informing me that the Committee award me a second-class gold medal. + +Pray convey my sentiments of tempered and respectable joy to the +gentlemen of the Committee, and my complete appreciation of the +second-hand compliment paid me. + + And I have, Sir, + The honour to be + Your most humble, obedient servant, + + J. MCNEILL WHISTLER. + +[Illustration] + + TO THE 1ST SECRETARY, + CENTRAL COMMITTEE, + INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION, MUNICH. + + + + +_The Home of Taste_ + +_The Ideas of Mr. Blankety Blank on House Decoration_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Dec. 1, 1888.] + +The other day I happened to call on Mr. Blank,--Japanese Blank, you +know, whose house is in far Fulham. The garden door flew open at my +summons, and my eye was at once confronted with a house, the hue of +whose face reminded me of a Venetian palazzo, for it was of a subdued +pink.... If the exterior was Venetian, however, the interior was a +compound of Blank and Japan. Attracted by the curiously pretty hall, I +begged the artist to explain this--the newest style of house +decoration. + +I need not say that Blank, being a man of an _original_ turn of mind, +with the decorative bump strongly developed, holds what are at present +peculiar views upon wall papers, room tones, and so on. The day is +dark and gloomy, yet once within the halls of Blank there is sweetness +and light. + +You must look through the open door into a luminous little chamber +covered with a soft wash of lemon yellow. + +From the antechamber we passed through the open door into a large +drawing-room, of the same soft lemon-yellow hue. The blinds were down, +the fog reigned without, and yet you would have thought that the sun +was in the room. + +Here let me pause in my description, and put on record the gist of our +conversation concerning the Home of Taste. + +"Now, Mr. Blank, would you tell me how you came to prefer tones to +papers?" + +"Here the walls used to be covered with a paper of a sombre green, +which oppressed me and made me sad," said Blank. 'Why cannot I bring +the sun into the house,' I said to myself, 'even in this land of fog +and clouds?' Then I thought of my experiment and invoked the aid of +the British house-painter. He brought his colours and his buckets, and +I stood over him as he mixed his washes. + +"One night, when the work was nearing completion, one of them caught +sight of himself in the mirror, and remarked with astonishment upon +the loveliness of his own features. It was the lemon-yellow +beautifying the British workman's flesh tones. + +"I assure you the effect of a room full of people in evening dress +seen against the yellow ground is extraordinary, and," added Blank, +"perhaps flattering." + +"Then do I understand that you would remove all wall papers?" + +"A good ground for distemper," chuckled Mr. Blank. + +"But you propose to inaugurate a revolution." + +"I don't go so far as that, but I am glad to be able to introduce my +ideas of house furnishing and house decoration to the public," said +Blank, "and I may tell you that when I go to America with my Paris +pictures, I shall try and decorate a house according to my own ideas, +and ask the Americans to think about the matter." + + + + +_Another Poacher in the Chelsea Preserves_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Dec. 26, 1888.] + +Atlas--Nothing matters but the unimportant; so, at the risk of +advertising an Australian immigrant of Fulham--who, like the Kangaroo +of his country, is born with a pocket and puts everything into +it--and, in spite of much wise advice, we ought not to resist the joy +of noticing how readily a hurried contemporary has fallen a prey to +its superficial knowledge of its various departments, and, culminating +in a "Special Edition" last week to embody a lengthy interview headed +"The Home of Taste," has discovered again the nest of the mare that +was foaled years ago! + +How, by the way, so smart a paper should have printed its _naif_ +emotions of ecstasy before the false colours which the "Kangaroo" has +hoisted over his bush, defies all usual explanation, but clearly the +jaunty reporter whose impudent familiarity, on a former memorable +occasion, achieved my wondering admiration, must have been, in stress +of business, replaced by a novice who had never breakfasted with +you and me, Atlas, and the rest of the world, in the "lemon-yellow," +of whose beautiful tone he now, for the first time, is so completely +convinced. + +The "hue" on the "face" of the Fulham "Palazzo" he moreover calls +"Venetian," and is pleased with it--and so was I, Atlas--_for I mixed +it myself_! + +And yet, O Atlas, they say that I cannot keep a friend--my dear, I +cannot afford it--and _you_ only keep for me their scalps! + +"Many, when a thing was lent them, reckoned it to be found, and put +them to trouble that helped them." + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Suggestion_ + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, March 28, 1889.] + +A certain painter has given himself away to an American journalist, +unless that gentleman has romanced, in the _Philadelphia Daily News_. +According to him this person explained how he managed the press, and +how he claimed to be the inventor of the system associated with the +name of Mr. Whistler. The Art clubs and the studios have been flooded +with the _Philadelphia Daily News_. Mr. Whistler sent on his own copy +to the pretender, with the following note:-- + + "You will blow your brains out, of course. Pigott has shown you + what to do under the circumstances, and you know your way to + Spain. Good-bye!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Habit of Second Natures_ + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, Jan. 2, 1890.] + +Most Valiant _Truth_--Among your ruthless exposures of the shams of +to-day, nothing, I confess, have I enjoyed with keener relish than +your late tilt at that arch-impostor and pest of the period--the +all-pervading plagiarist! + +I learn, by the way, that in America he may, under the "Law of '84," +as it is called, be criminally prosecuted, incarcerated, and made to +pick oakum, as he has hitherto picked brains--and pockets! + +How was it that, in your list of culprits, you omitted that fattest of +offenders--our own Oscar? + +His methods are brought again freshly to my mind, by the indefatigable +and tardy Romeike, who sends me newspaper cuttings of "Mr. Herbert +Vivian's Reminiscences," in which, among other entertaining anecdotes, +is told at length, the story of Oscar simulating the becoming pride of +author, upon a certain evening, in the club of the Academy students, +and arrogating to himself the responsibility of the lecture, +with which, at his earnest prayer, I had, in good fellowship, crammed +him, that he might not add deplorable failure to foolish appearance, +in his anomalous position, as art expounder, before his clear-headed +audience. + +He went forth, on that occasion, as my St. John--but, forgetting that +humility should be his chief characteristic, and unable to withstand +the unaccustomed respect with which his utterances were received, he +not only trifled with my shoe, but bolted with the latchet! + +Mr. Vivian, in his book, tells us, further on, that lately, in an +article in the _Nineteenth Century_ on the "Decay of Lying," Mr. Wilde +has deliberately and incautiously incorporated, "without a word of +comment," a portion of the well-remembered letter in which, after +admitting his rare appreciation and amazing memory, I acknowledge that +"Oscar has the courage of the opinions ... of others!" + +My recognition of this, his latest proof of open admiration, I send +him in the following little note, which I fancy you may think _a +propos_ to publish, as an example to your readers, in similar +circumstances, of noble generosity in sweet reproof, tempered, as it +should be, to the lamb in his condition:-- + +"Oscar, you have been down the area again, I see! + +"I had forgotten you, and so allowed your hair to grow over the sore +place. And now, while I looked the other way, you have stolen _your +own scalp_! and potted it in more of your pudding. + +"Labby has pointed out that, for the detected plagiarist, there is +still one way to self-respect (besides hanging himself, of course), +and that is for him boldly to declare, 'Je prends mon bien la ou je le +trouve.' + +"You, Oscar, can go further, and with fresh effrontery, that will +bring you the envy of all criminal _confreres_, unblushingly boast, +'Moi, je prends _son_ bien la ou je le trouve!'" + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_In the Market Place_ + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, Jan. 9, 1890.] + +Sir--I can hardly imagine that the public are in the very smallest +degree interested in the shrill shrieks of "Plagiarism" that proceed +from time to time out of the lips of silly vanity or incompetent +mediocrity. + +However, as Mr. James Whistler has had the impertinence to attack me +with both venom and vulgarity in your columns, I hope you will allow +me to state that the assertions contained in his letters are as +deliberately untrue as they are deliberately offensive. + +The definition of a disciple as one who has the courage of the +opinions of his master is really too old even for Mr. Whistler to be +allowed to claim it, and as for borrowing Mr. Whistler's ideas about +art, the only thoroughly original ideas I have ever heard him express +have had reference to his own superiority as a painter over painters +greater than himself. + +It is a trouble for any gentleman to have to notice the +lucubrations of so ill-bred and ignorant a person as Mr. Whistler, but +your publication of his insolent letter left me no option in the +matter.--I remain, Sir, faithfully yours, + + OSCAR WILDE. + + + + +_Panic_ + + + [Sidenote: _Truth_, Jan. 16, 1890.] + +O truth!--Cowed and humiliated, I acknowledge that our Oscar is at +last original. At bay, and sublime in his agony, he certainly has, for +once, borrowed from no living author, and comes out in his own true +colours--as his own "gentleman." + +How shall I stand against his just anger, and his damning allegations! +for it must be clear to your readers, that, beside his clean polish, +as prettily set forth in his epistle, I, alas! am but the "ill-bred +and ignorant person," whose "lucubrations" "it is a trouble" for him +"to notice." + +Still will I, desperate as is my condition, point out that though +"impertinent," "venomous," and "vulgar," he claims me as his +"master"--and, in the dock, bases his innocence upon such relation +between us. + +In all humility, therefore, I admit that the outcome of my "silly +vanity and incompetent mediocrity," must be the incarnation: "Oscar +Wilde." _Mea culpa!_ the Gods may perhaps forgive and forget. + +To you, _Truth_--champion of the truth--I leave the brave task of +proclaiming again that the story of the lecture to the students of the +Royal Academy was, as I told it to you, no fiction. + +In the presence of Mr. Waldo Story did Oscar make his prayer for +preparation; and at his table was he entrusted with the materials for +his crime. + +You also shall again unearth, in the _Nineteenth Century Review_ of +Jan. 1889, page 37, the other appropriated property, slily stowed +away, in an article on "The Decay of Lying"--though why Decay! + +To shirk this matter thus is craven, doubtless; but I am awe-stricken +and tremble, for truly, "the rage of the sheep is terrible!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Just Indignation_ + + +Oscar--How dare you! What means this disguise? + + [Sidenote: Upon perceiving the Poet, in Polish cap and + green overcoat, befrogged, and wonderfully befurred.] + +Restore those things to Nathan's, and never again let me find you +masquerading the streets of my Chelsea in the combined costumes of +Kossuth and Mr. Mantalini! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Advanced Critic_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, March 28, 1888.] + +Sir--I find myself obliged to notice the critical review of the "Ten +o'Clock," that appeared in your paper (March 6). + +In the interest of my publishers, I beg to state formally that the +work has not as yet been issued at all--and I would point out that +what is still in the hands of the printer, cannot possibly have fallen +into the fingers of your incautious contributor! + +The early telegram is doubtless the ambition of this smart, though +premature and restless one--but he is wanting in habit, and unhappy in +his haste!--What will you? The _Pall Mall_ and the people have been +imposed upon. + +Be good enough, Sir, to insert this note, lest the public suppose, +upon your authority, that the "Ten o'Clock," as yet unseen in the +window of Piccadilly, has, in consequence of this sudden summing up, +been hurriedly withdrawn from circulation.--I am, Sir, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Advantage of Explanation_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, March 31, 1888.] + +Sir--Just three weeks after publication Mr. Whistler "finds himself +obliged to notice the critical review of the 'Ten o'Clock' that +appeared in your paper." He points out that "what is still in the +hands of the printer cannot possibly have fallen into the fingers of +your incautious contributor." I do not pretend to be acquainted with +the multitudinous matters that may be in the hands of his publishers' +printers. But I can declare--and you, Sir, will corroborate me--that a +printed copy of Mr. Whistler's smart but misleading lecture was placed +in my hands for review, and, moreover, that the notice did not appear +until the pamphlet was duly advertised by Messrs. Chatto and Windus as +ready. It is, of course, a matter of regret to me if, as Mr. Whistler +suggests, his publishers' interests are likely to suffer from the +review; but if an author's work, in the reviewer's opinion, be +full of rash statement and mischievous doctrine, the publishers must +submit to the risk of frank criticism. But it will be observed that +Mr. Whistler is merely seeking to create an impression that your +Reviewer never saw the work he criticized, which is surely not a +creditable position to take up, even by a sensitive man writhing under +adverse criticism.--I am, Sir, most obediently, + + YOUR REVIEWER. + + + + +_Testimony_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 7, 1888.] + +Sir--My apologies, I pray you, to the much disturbed gentleman, "Your +Reviewer," who complains that I have allowed "just three weeks" to go +by without noticing his writing. + +Let me hasten, lest he be further offended, to acknowledge his answer, +in Saturday's paper. + +After much matter, he comes unexpectedly upon a clear understanding of +my letter--"It will be observed," he says naively, "that Mr. Whistler +is merely seeking to create an impression that your Reviewer never saw +the work he criticized,"--herein he is completely right, this is +absolutely the impression I did seek to create--"which," he continues, +"is surely not a creditable position to take up"--again I agree with +him, and admit the sad spectacle a "Reviewer" presents in such +position. + +He further "declares," and calls upon you, Sir, to "corroborate" +him, "that a printed copy of Mr. Whistler's misleading lecture was +placed in my hands for review"--and moreover, that "the notice did not +appear until the pamphlet was duly advertised by Messrs. Chatto and +Windus as ready." + +Pausing to note that if the lecture had not seemed misleading to him, +it would surely not have been worth uttering at all, I come to the +copy in question--this could only have been a printed proof, quaintly +acquired--as will be seen by the following letter from Messrs. Chatto +and Windus, which I must beg you Sir, to publish, with this note--as +it deals also with the remaining point, the advertisement of the +pamphlet, + + And, I am, Sir, + +[Illustration] + + +The following is the letter from Mr. Whistler's publishers:-- + + DEAR SIR--In reply to your question we have to say that we + certainly have not sent out any copy of the "Ten o'Clock" to the + press, or to anybody else excepting yourself. The work is still + in the printers' hands, and we have for a long time past + been advertising it only as "shortly" to be published; indeed, + only a few proofs have so far been taken from the type. + + Yours faithfully, + + CHATTO and WINDUS. + + + + +_An Apostasy_ + + + [Sidenote: Mr. Whistler's Lecture on Art, by Algernon + Charles Swinburne. + + _Fortnightly Review_, June 1888.] + +To speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth may +justly be required of the average witness; it cannot be expected, it +should not be exacted, of any critical writer or lecturer on any form +of art.... + +... And it appears to one at least of those unfortunate "outsiders" +for whose judgment or whose "meddling" Mr. Whistler has so imperial +and Olympian a contempt.... + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "If" indeed! + + [Illustration]] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + "Cups and fans and screens," and Hamilton vases, and + figurines of Tanagra, and other "waterflies." + + [Illustration]] + +Let us begin at the end, as all reasonable people always do: we shall +find that Mr. Whistler concedes to Greek art a place beside Japanese. +Now this, on his own showing, will never do; it crosses, it +contravenes, it nullifies, it pulverizes his theory or his principle +of artistic limitation. If Japanese art is right in confining itself +to what can be "broidered upon the fan"--and the gist of the whole +argument is in favour of this assumption--then the sculpture which +appeals, indeed, first of all to our perception of beauty, to the +delight of the eye, to the wonder and the worship of the instinct or +the sense, but which in every possible instance appeals also to far +other intuitions and far other sympathies than these, is as absolutely +wrong, as demonstrably inferior, as any picture or as any carving +which may be so degenerate and so debased as to concern itself with a +story or a subject. Assuredly Phidias thought of other things than +"arrangements"[34] in marble--as certainly as AEschylus thought of +other things than "arrangements" in metre. Nor, I am sorely afraid, +can the adored Velasquez be promoted to a seat "at the foot of +Fusi-yama." Japanese art is not merely the incomparable achievement of +certain harmonies in colour; _it is the negation, the immolation, the +annihilation of everything else_. By the code which accepts as the highest +of models and of masterpieces the cups and fans and screens with which +"the poor world" has been as grievously "pestered" of late years as ever +it was in Shakespeare's time "with such waterflies"--"diminutives of +nature"--as excited the scorn of his moralizing cynic, Velasquez is as +unquestionably condemned as is Raphael or Titian. It is true that this +miraculous power of hand (?)[35] makes beautiful for us the deformity +of dwarfs, and dignifies the degradation of princes; but that +is not the question. It is true, again, that Mr. Whistler's own merest +"arrangements" in colour are lovely and effective;[36] but his +portraits, to speak of these alone, are liable to the damning and +intolerable imputation of possessing not merely other qualities than +these, but qualities which actually appeal--I blush to remember and I +shudder to record it--which actually appeal to the intelligence[37] +and the emotions, to the mind and heart of the spectator. It would be +quite useless for Mr. Whistler to protest--if haply he should be so +disposed--that he never meant to put study of character and revelation +of intellect into his portrait of Mr. Carlyle, or intense pathos of +significance and tender depth of expression into the portrait of his +own venerable mother. The scandalous fact remains, that he has done +so; and in so doing has explicitly violated and implicitly abjured the +creed and the canons, the counsels and the catechism of Japan.... + + [Note 34: _REFLECTION:_ + + Because the Bard is blind, shall the Painter cease to + see? + + [Illustration]] + + [Note 35: _REFLECTION:_ + + Quite hopeless! + + [Illustration]] + + [Note 36: _REFLECTION:_ + + Whereby it would seem that, for the Bard, the lovely is + not necessarily "effective." + + [Illustration]] + + [Note 37: _REFLECTION:_ + + The "lovely," therefore, confessedly does not appeal to + the intelligence, emotions, mind, and heart of the Bard + even when aided by the "effective." + + [Illustration]] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Of course I do mean this thing--though most imprudent + was the saying of it!--for this Art truth the Poet + resents with the people.--June 1888. + + [Illustration]] + +And when Mr. Whistler informs us that "there never was an artistic +period," we must reply that the statement, so far as it is true, is +the flattest of all possible truisms; for no mortal ever maintained +that there ever was a period in which all men were either good +artists or good judges of art. But when we pass from the positive to +the comparative degree of historic or retrospective criticism, we must +ask whether the lecturer means to say that there have not been times +when the general standard of taste and judgment, reason and +perception, was so much higher than at other times and such periods +may justly and accurately be defined as artistic. If he does mean to +say this, he is beyond answer and beneath confutation; in other words, +he is where an artist of Mr. Whistler's genius and a writer of Mr. +Whistler's talents can by no possibility find himself. If he does not +mean to say this, what he means to say is exactly as well worth +saying, as valuable and as important a piece of information, as the +news that Queen Anne is no more, or that two and two are not generally +supposed to make five. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Je reviens donc de Pontoise! + + [Illustration]] + +But if the light and glittering bark of this brilliant amateur in the +art of letters is not invariably steered with equal dexterity of hand +between the Scylla and Charybdis of paradox and platitude, it is +impossible that in its course it should not once and again touch +upon some point worth notice, if not exploration. Even that +miserable animal the "unattached writer" may gratefully and +respectfully recognize his accurate apprehension and his felicitous +application of well-nigh the most hackneyed verse in all the range of +Shakespeare's--which yet is almost invariably misconstrued and +misapplied--"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;" and this, +as the poet goes on to explain, is that all, with one consent, prefer +worthless but showy novelties to precious but familiar possessions. +"This one chord that vibrates with all," says Mr. Whistler, who +proceeds to cite artistic examples of the lamentable fact, "this one +unspoken sympathy that pervades humanity, is--Vulgarity." But the +consequence which he proceeds to indicate and to deplore is calculated +to strike his readers with a sense of mild if hilarious astonishment. +It is that men of sound judgment and pure taste, quick feelings and +clear perceptions, most unfortunately and most inexplicably begin to +make their voices "heard in the land." Porson, as all the world knows, +observed of the Germans of his day that "in Greek" they were "sadly to +seek." It is no discredit to Mr. Whistler if this is his case also; +but then he would do well to eschew the use of a Greek term lying so +far out of the common way as the word "aesthete." Not merely the only +accurate meaning, but the only possible meaning, of that word is +nothing more, but nothing less, than this--an intelligent, +appreciative, quick-witted person; in a word, as the lexicon has it, +"one who perceives." The man who is no aesthete stands confessed, +by the logic of language and the necessity of the case, as a +thick-witted, tasteless, senseless, and impenetrable blockhead. I do +not wish to insult Mr. Whistler, but I feel bound to avow my +impression that there is no man now living who less deserves the +honour of enrolment in such ranks as these--of a seat in the synagogue +of the anaesthetic.... + +... Such abuse of language is possible only to the drivelling +desperation of venomous or fangless duncery: it is in higher and +graver matters, of wider bearing and of deeper import, that we find it +necessary to dispute the apparently serious propositions or assertions +of Mr. Whistler. _How far the witty tongue may be thrust into the +smiling cheek_ when the lecturer pauses to take breath between these +remarkably brief paragraphs it would be certainly indecorous and +possibly superfluous to inquire. But his theorem is unquestionably +calculated to provoke the loudest and the heartiest mirth that ever +acclaimed the advent of Momus or Erycina. For it is this--that +[38]"Art and Joy go together," _and that_[39] _tragic art is not art +at all_.... + + [Note 38: _REFLECTION:_ + + Is not, then, the funeral hymn a gladness to the singer, + if the verse be beautiful? + + Certainly the funeral monument, to be worthy the + Nation's sorrow buried beneath it, must first be a joy + to the sculptor who designed it. + + The Bard's reasoning is of the People. His Tragedy is + _theirs_. As one of them, the _man_ may weep--yet will + the artist rejoice--for to him is not "A thing of beauty + a joy for ever"? + + [Illustration]] + + [Note 39: At what point of my "_O'clock_" does Mr. + Swinburne find this last--his own inconsequence? + + [Illustration]] + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + Before the marvels of centuries, silence, the only + tribute of the outsider, is by him refused--and the + dignity of ignorance lost in speech. + + [Illustration]] + +... The laughing Muse of the lecturer, "quam Jocus circumvolat," must +have glanced round in expectation of the general appeal, "After that +let us take breath." And having done so, they must have remembered +that they were not in a serious world; that they were in the fairyland +of fans, in the paradise of pipkins, in the limbo of blue china, +screens, pots, plates, jars, joss-houses, and all the fortuitous +frippery of Fusi-yama. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + If an aesthete, the Bard is no collector! + + [Illustration]] + +It is a cruel but an inevitable Nemesis which reduces even a man of +real genius, keen-witted and sharp-sighted, to the level of the critic +Jobson, to the level of the _dotard and the dunce_, when paradox is +discoloured by personality and merriment is distorted by malevolence.(!) +No man who really knows the qualities of Mr. Whistler's best work will +imagine that he really believes the highest expression of his art to +be realized in reproduction of the grin and glare, the smirk and leer, +of Japanese womanhood as represented in its professional types of +beauty; but to all appearance he would fain persuade us that he does. + +In the latter of the two portraits to which I have already referred +there is an expression of living character.... This, however, is an +exception to the general rule of Mr. Whistler's way of work: an +exception, it may be alleged, which proves the rule. A single +infraction of the moral code, a single breach of artistic law, +suffices to vitiate the position of the preacher. And this is no +slight escapade, or casual aberration; it is a full and frank +defiance, a deliberate and elaborate denial, hurled right in the +face of Japanese jocosity, flung straight in the teeth of the theory +which condemns high art, under penalty of being considered +intelligent, to remain eternally on the grin. + + [Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_ + + A keen commercial summing up--excused by the "Great + Emperor!" + + [Illustration]] + +If it be objected that to treat this theorem gravely is "to consider +too curiously" the tropes and the phrases of _a jester_ of genius, I +have only to answer that it very probably may be so, but that the +excuse for such error must be sought in the existence of the genius. A +man of genius is scarcely at liberty to choose whether he shall or +shall not be considered as a serious figure--one to be acknowledged +and respected as an equal or a superior, not applauded and dismissed +as _a tumbler or a clown_. And if the better part of Mr. Whistler's +work as an artist is to be accepted as the work of a serious and +intelligent creature, it would seem incongruous and preposterous to +dismiss the more characteristic points of his theory as a lecturer +with the chuckle or the shrug of mere amusement or amazement. +Moreover, if considered as a joke, a mere joke, and nothing but a +joke, this gospel of the grin has hardly matter or meaning enough in +it to support so elaborate a structure of paradoxical rhetoric. It +must be taken, therefore, as something serious in the main; and if so +taken, and read by the light reflected from Mr. Whistler's more +characteristically brilliant canvases, it may not improbably recall a +certain phrase of Moliere's which at once passed into a proverb--"Vous +etes orfevre, M. Josse." That worthy tradesman, it will be remembered, +was of opinion that nothing could be so well calculated to restore a +drooping young lady to mental and physical health as the present of a +handsome set of jewels. _Mr. Whistler's opinion that there is nothing +like leather--of a jovial and Japanese design--savours somewhat of the +Oriental cordwainer._ + + + + +"_Et tu, Brute!_" + + +Why, O brother! did you not consult with me before printing, in the +face of a ribald world, _that you also misunderstand_, and are capable +of saying so, with vehemence and repetition. + +Have I then left no man on his legs?--and have I shot down the singer +in the far off, when I thought him safe at my side? + +Cannot the man who wrote _Atalanta_--and the _Ballads_ beautiful,--can +he not be content to spend his life with _his_ work, which should be +his love,--and has for him no misleading doubt and darkness--that he +should so stray about blindly in his brother's flowerbeds and bruise +himself! + +Is life then so long with him, and _his_ art so short, that he shall +dawdle by the way and wander from his path, reducing his giant +intellect--garrulous upon matters to him unknown, that the scoffer may +rejoice and the Philistine be appeased while he takes up the +parable of the mob and proclaims himself their spokesman and +fellow-sufferer? O Brother! where is thy sting! O Poet! where is thy +victory! + +How have I offended! and how shall you in the midst of your poisoned +page hurl with impunity the boomerang rebuke? "Paradox is discoloured +by personality, and merriment is distorted by malevolence." + +Who are you, deserting your Muse, that you should insult my Goddess +with familiarity, and the manners of approach common to the reasoners +in the marketplace. "Hearken to me," you cry, "and I will point out +how this man, who has passed his life in her worship, is a tumbler and +a clown of the booths--how he who has produced that which I fain must +acknowledge--is a jester in the ring!" + +Do we not speak the same language? Are we strangers, then, or, in our +Father's house are there so many mansions that you lose your way, my +brother, and cannot recognize your kin? + +Shall I be brought to the bar by my own blood, and be borne false +witness against before the plebeian people? Shall I be made to +stultify myself by what I never said--and shall the strength of your +testimony turn upon me? "If"--"If Japanese Art is right in confining +itself to what can be broidered upon the fan" ... and again ... +"that he really believes the highest expression of his art to be +realized in reproduction of the grin and glare, the smirk and leer" +... and further ... "the theory which condemns high art, under the +penalty of being considered intelligent, to remain eternally on the +grin" ... and much more! + +"Amateur writer!" Well should I deserve the reproach, had I ventured +ever beyond the precincts of my own science--and fatal would have been +the exposure, as you, with heedless boldness, have unwittingly proven. + +Art tainted with philanthropy--that better Art result!--Poet and +Peabody! + +You have been misled--you have mistaken the pale demeanour and joined +hands for an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual +earnestness. For you, these are the serious ones, and, for them, you +others are the serious matter. Their joke is their work. For me--why +should I refuse myself the grim joy of this grotesque tragedy--and, +with them now, you all are my joke! + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Freeing a Last Friend_ + + +Bravo! Bard! and exquisitely written, I suppose, as becomes your +state. + + [Sidenote: _The World_, June 3, 1888. Letter to Mr. + Swinburne.] + +The scientific irrelevancies and solemn popularities, less elaborately +embodied, I seem to have met with before--in papers signed by more +than one serious and unqualified sage, whose mind also was not +narrowed by knowledge. + +I have been "personal," you say; and, faith! you prove it! + +Thank you, my dear! I have lost a _confrere_; but, then, I have gained +an acquaintance--one Algernon Swinburne--"outsider"--Putney. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_An Editor's Anxiety_ + + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 26, 1889.] + +It is reported that Mr. Whistler, having received word that a drawing +of his had been rejected by the Committee of the Universal Exhibition, +arrived yesterday in Paris and withdrew all his remaining works, +including an oil painting and six drawings. The French consider that +he has been guilty of a breach of good manners. The _Paris_, for +instance, points out that, after sending his works to the jury, he +should have accepted their judgment, and appealed to the public by +other methods. + + + + +_Rassurez vous!_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 27, 1889.] + +Sir--You are badly informed--a risk you constantly run in your haste +for pleasing news. + +I have not "withdrawn" my works "from the forthcoming Paris +Exhibition." + +I transported my pictures from the American department to the British +section of the "Exposition Internationale," where I prefer to be +represented. + +"The French" have nothing, so far, to do with English or American +exhibits. + +A little paragraph is a dangerous thing. + + And I am, Sir, + +Chelsea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Whistler's Grievance_ + + + _AN ENTRAPPED INTERVIEW._ + + [Sidenote: _New York Herald_, Paris Edition, Oct. 3, + 1889.] + +The _Herald_ correspondent saw Mr. Whistler at the Hotel Suisse, and +asked the artist about his affairs with the American Art Jury of the +Exhibition. + +"I believe the _Herald_ made the statement," said Mr. Whistler, "that +I had withdrawn all my etchings and a full-length portrait from the +American section. It all came about in this way: In the first place, +before the pictures were sent in, I received a note from the American +Art Department asking me to contribute some of my work. It was at that +time difficult for me to collect many of my works; but I borrowed what +I could from different people, and sent in twenty-seven etchings and +the portrait." + +"You can imagine that a few etchings do not have any effect at all; so +I sent what I could get together. Shortly afterwards I received a note +saying: 'Sir--Ten of your exhibits have not received the approval +of the jury. Will you kindly remove them?'" + +"At the bottom of this note was the name 'Hawkins'--General Hawkins, I +believe--a cavalry officer, who had charge of the American Art +Department of the Exhibition. + +"Well! the next day I went to Paris and called at the American +headquarters of the Exhibition. I was ushered into the presence of +this gentleman, Hawkins, to whom I said:--'I am Mr. Whistler, and I +believe this note is from you. I have come to remove my etchings'; but +I did not mention that my work was to be transferred to the English +Art Section." + +"'Ah!' said the gentleman--the officer--'we were very sorry not to +have had space enough for all your etchings, but we are glad to have +seventeen and the portrait." + +"'You are too kind' I said, 'but really I will not trouble you.'" + +"Mr. Hawkins was quite embarrassed, and urged me to reconsider my +determination, but I withdrew every one of the etchings, and they are +now well hung in the English Department." + +"I did not mind the fact that my works were criticized, but it was the +discourteous manner in which it was done. If the request to me had been +made in proper language, and they had simply said:--'Mr. Whistler, +we have not space enough for twenty-seven etchings. Will you kindly +select those which you prefer, and we shall be glad to have them,' I +would have given them the privilege of placing them in the American +Section."... + + + + +"_Whacking Whistler_" + + + [Sidenote: _New York Herald_, Paris Edition, Oct. 4. + 1889.] + +In an interview in yesterday's _Herald_ the eccentric artist, Mr. J. +McNeill Whistler, "jumped" in a most emphatic manner upon General +Hawkins, Commissioner of the American Art Department at the +Exhibition. He objects to the General for being a cavalry officer; +refers to him sarcastically as "Hawkins," and declares him ignorant of +the most elementary principles alike of art and politeness--all this +because he, Whistler, was requested by the Commissioner to remove from +the Exhibition premises some ten of his rejected etchings. + +In a spirit of fair play a correspondent called upon General Hawkins, +giving him an opportunity, if he felt so disposed, of "jumping," in +his turn, on his excitable opponent. The General did feel "so +disposed," and proceeded, in popular parlance, to "see" Mr. J. McNeill +Whistler and "go him one better." In this species of linguistic +gymnastics, by the way, the military Commissioner asks no odds of +any one. He began by gently remarking that Mr. Whistler, in his +published remarks, had soared far out of the domain of strict +veracity. This was not bad for a "starter," and was ably supported by +the following detailed statement:-- + +"Mr. Whistler says he received a note from me. That is a mistake. I +have never in my life written a line to Mr. Whistler.[40] What he did +receive was a circular with my name printed at the bottom. These +circulars were sent to all the artists who had pictures refused by the +jury, and contained a simple request that such pictures be removed. + + [Note 40: The official memory: + + "DEAR SIR--I wish by return mail you would send + description for oils; and if you desire to have titles + to etchings printed, you will have to furnish the + necessary material for copy.--Yours faithfully, + RUSH C. HAWKINS, + + Commissariat General, Paris, March 29, 1889. + (_Autograph._) + + To Mr. Whistler."] + +"Our way of doing business was not, it seems, up to Mr. Whistler's +standard of politeness, so he got angry and took away, not only the +ten rejected etchings, but seventeen others which had been accepted. +It is a little singular that among about one hundred and fifty artists +who received this circular, Mr. Whistler should have been the only one +to discover its latent discourtesy. How great must be Mr. Whistler's +capacity for detecting a snub where none exists!" + +"In any case, there is not the slightest reason for Mr. Whistler's +venting his ire upon me. I had no more to do with either accepting or +rejecting his pictures than I had with painting them. What he sent +us was judged on its merits by a competent and impartial jury of his +peers. If there were ten etchings rejected it only shows that there +were ten etchings not worthy of acceptance. A few days after the +affair a trio of journalists--not all men either--came to me, +demanding that I reverse this 'iniquitous decision,' as they styled +it. I told these three prying scribblers in a polite way that if they +would kindly attend to their own affairs I would try to attend to +mine. In this connection, I may remark that there are in Paris a +number of correspondents who ought not to be allowed within gun-shot +of a newspaper office." + +"The next mis-statement in Mr. Whistler's interview is in regard to +the ultimate disposal of his important etchings. His words are:--'Mr. +Hawkins was quite embarrassed, and urged me to reconsider my +determination, but I withdrew every one of the etchings, and they are +now well hung in the English department.'" + +"Now, I leave it to any fair-minded person if the plain inference from +this statement is not that the whole twenty-seven etchings were +accepted by the English department. If not, what in heaven's name is +he crowing about? But the truth is that while we rejected only +_ten_ of his etchings, the English department rejected _eighteen_ +of them, and of the nine accepted only hung two on the line. Had Mr. +Whistler been the possessor of a more even temper and a little more +common sense, he would have had five or six of his works on the line +in the American department, and nearly twice as many on exhibition +than is actually the case. Really, I fail to see what he gained by the +exchange, unless it was a valuable experience. He says I was +embarrassed when I saw him; I fancy he will be embarrassed when he +sees these facts in 'cold type.'" + + + + +"_Whistler's Grievance_" + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _New York Herald._] + +Sir--I beg that you will kindly print immediately these, my regrets, +that General Rush Hawkins should have been spurred into unwonted and +unbecoming expression by what I myself read with considerable +bewilderment in the _New York Herald_, October 3, under the head of +"Whistler's Grievance." + +I can assure the gallant soldier that I have no grievance. + +Had I known that, when--over what takes the place of wine and walnuts +in Holland--I remembered lightly the military methods of the jury, I +was being "interviewed," I should have adopted as serious a tone as +the original farce would admit of; or I might have even refused to be +a party at all to the infliction upon your readers of so old and +threadbare a story as that of the raid upon the works of art in the +American section of the Universal Exhibition. + +Your correspondent, I fancy, felt much more warmly, than did I, +wrongs that--who knows?--are doubtless rights in the army; and my +sympathies, I confess, are completely with the General, who did only, +as he complains, his duty in that state of life in which it had +pleased God, and the War Department, to call him, when, according to +order, he signed that naively authoritative note, circular, warrant, +or what not--for he did irretrievably fasten his name to it, whether +with pen or print, thereby hopelessly making the letter his own. Thus +have we responsibility, like greatness, sometimes thrust upon us. + +On receipt of the document I came--I saw the commanding officer, who, +until now, I fondly trusted, would ever remember me as pleasantly as I +do himself--and, knowing despatch in all military matters to be of +great importance, I then and there relieved him of the troublesome +etchings, and carried off the painting. + +It is a sad shock to me to find that the good General speaks of me +without affection, and that he evinces even joy when he says with a +view to my entire discomfiture:--"While we rejected only ten of his +etchings, the English department rejected eighteen of them, and of the +nine accepted, only hung two on the line." + +Now, he is wrong!--the General is wrong. + +The etchings now hanging in the English section--and perfect is +their hanging, notwithstanding General Hawkins's flattering +anxiety--are the only ones I sent there. + +In the haste and enthusiasm of your interviewer, I have, on this +point, been misunderstood. + +There was moreover here no question of submitting them to a "competent +and impartial jury of his peers"--one of whom, by the way, I am +informed upon undoubted authority, had never before come upon an +"etching" in his hitherto happy and unchequered Western career. + +We all knew that the space allotted to the English department was +exceedingly limited, and each one refrained from abusing it. Here I +would point out again, hoping this time to be clearly understood, +that, had the methods employed in the American camp been more civil, +if less military, all further difficulties might have been avoided. +Had I been properly advised that the room was less than the demand for +place, I would, of course, have instantly begged the gentlemen of the +jury to choose, from among the number, what etchings they pleased. So +the matter would have ended, and you, Sir, would have been without +this charming communication! + +The pretty embarrassment of General Hawkins on the occasion of my +visit, I myself liked, thinking it seemly, and part of the good +form of a West Point man, who is taught that a drum-head court +martial--and what else in the experience of this finished officer +should so fit him for sitting in judgment upon pictures?--should be +presided at with grave and softened demeanour. + +If I mistook the General's manner, it is another illusion the less. + + And I have, Sir, + the honour to be, + Your obedient servant, + +[Illustration] + +Amsterdam, Oct. 6. + + + + +_The Art-Critic's Friend_ + + + [Sidenote: _The Scots Observer_, April 5, 1890.] + +Mr. Whistler has many things to answer for, and not the least of them +is the education of the British Art-Critic. That, at any rate, is the +impression left by a little book made up--apparently against the +writer's will--of certain of the master's letters and _mots_.... It is +useful and pleasant reading; for not only does it prove the painter to +have a certain literary talent--of aptness, unexpectedness, above all +impertinence--but also it proves him never to have feared the face of +art-critical man.... To him the art-critic is nothing if not a person +to be educated, with or against the grain; and when he encounters him +in the ways of error, he leaps upon him joyously, scalps him in print +before the eyes of men, kicks him gaily back into the paths of truth +and soberness, and resumes his avocation with that peculiar zest an +act of virtue does undoubtedly impart. Indeed, Mr. Whistler, so far +from being the critic's enemy, is on the contrary the best friend +that tradesman has ever had. For his function is to make him +ridiculous.... + +... Yes, Mr. Whistler is often "rowdy" and unpleasant; in his last +combat with Mr. Oscar Wilde--("Oscar, you have been down the area +again")--he comes off a palpable second; his treatment of 'Arry dead +and "neglected by the parish" goes far to prove that his sense of +smell is not so delicate nor so perfectly trained as his sense of +sight.... + + + + +_A Question_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _The Scots Observer_, April 19, 1890.] + +Sir--It is, I suppose, to your pleasant satisfaction in "The Critic's +Friend" that I owe the early copy of the _Scots Observer_, pointed +with proud mark, in the blue pencil of office, whereby the impatient +author hastened to indicate the pithy personal paragraphs, that no +time should be wasted upon other matter with which the periodical is +ballasted. + +Exhilarated by the belief that I had been remembered--for vanity's +sake let me fancy that you have bestowed upon me your own thought and +hand--I plunged forthwith into the underlined article, and read with +much amusement your excellent appreciation. + +Having forgotten none of your professional manner as art arbiter, may +I say that I can picture to myself easily the sad earnestness with +which you now point the thick thumb of your editorial refinement +in deprecation of my choicer "rowdyism"? And knowing your analytical +conscientiousness, I can even understand the humble comfort you take +in Oscar's meek superiority; but, for the life of me, I cannot follow +your literary intention when you say that my care of "''Arry,' dead +and neglected by the parish," goes far to prove that my "sense of +smell is not so delicate nor so perfectly trained as" my "sense of +sight." + +Do you mean that my discovery of the body is the result of a cold in +the head? and that, with a finer scent, I should have missed it +altogether? or were you only unconsciously remembering and dreamily +dipping your pen into the ink of my former description of "'Arry's" +chronic catarrh? In any case, I am charmed with what I have just read, +and only regret that the ridiculous "Romeike" has not hitherto sent me +your agreeable literature.--Also I am, dear Sir, your obedient +servant, + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The End of the Piece_ + + +Sir--I beg to draw your attention to the contents of your letter to +the _Scots Observer_, dated April 12th, in which you state that you +"regret the ridiculous Romeike has not hitherto sent me your agreeable +literature." + +This statement, had it been true, was spiteful and injurious, but +being untrue (entirely) it becomes malicious, and I must ask you at +once to apologise. + +And at the same time to draw your attention to the fact that we have +supplied you with 807 cuttings. + +We have written to the _Scots Observer_ for an ample apology, or the +matter will be placed in our solicitor's hands, and we demand the same +of you. + + Yours obediently, + ROMEIKE & CURTICE. + J. MCN. WHISTLER, Esq. + April 25, 1890. + + + + +_Exit the Prompter_ + + +Sir--If it be not actionable, permit me to say that you _really are +delightful_!! + +_Naivete_, like yours, I have never met--even in my long experience +with all those, some of whose "agreeable literature" may be, I +suppose, in the 807 cuttings you charge me for. + +Who, in Heaven's name, ever dreamed of you as an actual person?--or +one whom one would mean to insult? + +My good Sir, no such intention--believe me--did I, in my wildest of +moments, ever entertain. + +_Your_ scalp--if you have such a thing--is safe enough!--and I even +think--however great my willingness to assist you--could not possibly +appear in the forthcoming Edition. + + To Mr. ROMEIKE, + April 25. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_L'Envoi_ + + +When the Chairman, in a singularly brilliant and felicitous speech led +up to the toast of the evening, Mr. Whistler rose to his feet. + + [Sidenote: _Sunday Times_, May 5, 1889.] + + [Sidenote: Report of a reply to the toast of the evening + at the complimentary dinner given to Mr. Whistler, + London, May 1, 1889.] + +"You must feel that, for me," said Mr. Whistler, "it is no easy task +to reply under conditions of which I have so little habit. We are all +even too conscious that mine has hitherto, I fear, been the gentle +answer that sometimes turneth not away wrath." + +"Gentlemen," said he, "this is an age of rapid results, when remedies +insist upon their diseases, that science shall triumph and no time be +lost; and so have we also rewards that bring with them their own +virtue. It would ill become me to question my fitness for the position +it has pleased this distinguished company to thrust upon me." + +"It has before now been borne in upon me, that in surroundings of +antagonism, I may have wrapped myself, for protection, in a species of +misunderstanding--as that other traveller drew closer about him +the folds of his cloak the more bitterly the winds and the storm +assailed him on his way. But, as with him, when the sun shone upon him +in his path, his cloak fell from his shoulders, so I, in the warm glow +of your friendship, throw from me all former disguise, and, making no +further attempt to hide my true feeling, disclose to you my deep +emotion at such unwonted testimony of affection and faith." + + + + +_Auto-Biographical_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, July 28, 1891.] + +Sir,--May I request that you allow me to make known, through your +influential paper, the fact that the canvas, now shown as a completed +work of mine, at Messrs. Dowdeswell's, representing three draped +figures in a conservatory, is a painting long ago barely begun, and +thrown aside for destruction? + +Also I am in no way responsible for the taste of the frame with its +astonishments of plush! and varied gildings. + +I think it not only just to myself to make this statement, but right +that the public should be warned against the possible purchase of a +picture in no way representative, and, in its actual condition, +absolutely worthless.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant, + +_Chelsea, July 27, 1891._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +_Mr. Whistler "had on his own Toast"_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Aug. 1, 1891.] + +Sir,--I have read with interest Mr. Whistler's letter in your issue of +July 28. I happened to be at Messrs. Dowdeswell's galleries the other +day and saw the picture he refers to. It was not on public exhibition, +but was in one of their private rooms, and was brought out for my +inspection _a propos_ of a conversation we were having. Now, so far +from Messrs. Dowdeswell showing it as a "completed work," they +distinctly spoke of it as unfinished; nor can I imagine any one +acquainted with Mr. Whistler's works speaking of any of them as +"completed!" In "L'Envoi" of the catalogue of his exhibition held at +Messrs. Dowdeswell's a short time ago I find the following paragraph +from his pen:--"The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the +brow--suggests no effort--and _is finished from its beginning_." The +only inference possible is either that Mr. Whistler is not a master, + or that the work is finished! He has, however, spent what +time he could spare from his literary labours in endeavouring to +induce the world to believe that the slightest scratch from his pen is +worthy to rank with "Las Lanzas," and I am therefore surprised to +learn that he has altered his opinion. Still, I quite agree with him +when he tells us that some of his work is "absolutely worthless!"--I +am, sir, more in sorrow than in anger, your obedient servant, + + W. C. + _July 31, 1891._ + + + + +_What "Mr. Whistler had on his own Toast"_ + + + _TO THE EDITOR:_ + + [Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Aug. 4, 1891.] + +Sir,--My letter should have met with no reply at all. It was a +statement--authoritative and unanswerable, if there ever were one. + +Because of the attention drawn to it, in the press, I felt called upon +to advise the Public that one of _my own works_ is condemned _by +myself_. Final this, one would fancy! + +That the accidental owners of the Gallery should introduce themselves +to the situation, is of a most marked irrelevancy. They come in _comme +un cheveu sur la soupe_, to be removed at once. + +The dealer's business is to buy and sell. In the course of such +traffic, these same busy picture bodies, without consulting me, put +upon the market a painting that I, the author, intended to +efface--and, thanks to your courtesy, I have been enabled to say so +effectually in your journal. + +All along have I carefully destroyed plates, torn up proofs, and +burned canvases, that the truth of the quoted word shall prevail, +and that the future collector shall be spared the mortification of +cataloguing his pet mistakes. + +To destroy, is to remain. + +What is commercial irritation beside a clean canvas? + +What is a gentlemanly firm in Bond Street beside Eternity?--I am, sir, +your obedient servant, + +_Chelsea, August 1, 1891._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +_NOCTURNES, MARINES, + AND + CHEVALET PIECES_ + +_A CATALOGUE_ + +[Illustration] + +_SMALL COLLECTION + KINDLY LENT + THEIR OWNERS_ + + + + +"_THE VOICE OF A PEOPLE_" + + + + +"I do not know when so much amusement has been afforded to the +British public as by Mr. Whistler's pictures." + + _Speech of the Attorney-General of England. + Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +1.--NOCTURNE. + +GREY AND SILVER--CHELSEA EMBANKMENT--WINTER. + + _Lent by F. G. Orchar, Esq._ + +"With the exception, perhaps, of one of Mr. Whistler's meaningless +canvases, there is nothing that is actually provocative of undue mirth +or ridicule." + + _City Press._ + + +"In some of the Nocturnes the absence, not only of definition, but of +gradation, would point to the conclusion that they are but engaging +sketches. In them we look in vain for all the delicate differences +of light and hue which the scenes depicted present." + + _F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_ + + +2.--SYMPHONY IN WHITE, No. III. + + _Lent by Louis Huth, Esq._ + +"It is not precisely a symphony in white--one lady has a yellowish +dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red +fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white +on a white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course +there is the flesh colour of the complexions." + + _P. G. Hamerton, "Saturday Review."_ + + +"Mr. Whistler appears as eccentrically as ever.... Art is not served +by freaks of resentment.... We hold him deeply to blame that these +figures are badly drawn. + +"... 'Taste,' which is mind working in Art, would, even if it could at +all conceive them, utterly reject the vulgarities of Mr. Whistler with +regard to form, and never be content with what suffices him in +composition."--_Athenaeum._ + + +"Painting, or art generally, as such, with all its technicalities, +difficulties, and particular ends, is nothing but a noble and +expressive language, invaluable as the vehicle of thought, but by +itself nothing." + + _John Ruskin, Esq., Art Professor, + "Modern Painters."_ + + +3.--CHELSEA IN ICE. + + _Lent by Madame Venturi._ + +"We are not sure but that it would be something like insult to our +readers to say more about these 'things.' They must surely be meant in +jest; but whether the public have chiefly to thank Mr. Whistler or the +Managers of the Grosvenor Gallery for playing off on them this sorry +joke we do not know, nor greatly care. _Meliora canamus!_"--_Knowledge._ + + +4.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND GOLD--OLD BATTERSEA BRIDGE. + + _Lent by Robert H. C. Harrison, Esq._ + +"His Nocturne in Blue and Gold, No. 3, might have been called, with a +similar confusion of terms: A Farce in Moonshine, with half-a-dozen +dots."--_Life._ + + +"The picture representing a night scene on Battersea Bridge has no +composition and detail. A day, or a day and a half, seems a reasonable +time within which to paint it. It shows no finish--it is simply +a sketch." + + _Mr. Jones, R.A.--Evidence in Court, + Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +5.--THE LANGE LEIZEN--OF THE SIX MARKS. + +PURPLE AND ROSE. + + _Lent by J. Leathart._ + +"Mr. Whistler paints subjects sadly below the merit of his +pencil."--_London Review._ + + +"A worse specimen of humanity than could be found on the oldest piece +of china in existence." + + _Reader._ + + +"The hideous forms we find in his Chinese vase painteress ... an +ostentatious slovenliness of execution ... objects as much out of +perspective as the great blue vase in the foreground, _&c._ ... +_&c._... + +"It is Mr. Whistler's way to choose people and things for painting +which other painters would turn from, and to combine these oddly +chosen materials as no other painter would choose to combine them. He +should learn that eccentricity is not originality, but the caricature +of it."--_Times._ + + +6.--NOCTURNE. + +TRAFALGAR SQUARE--SNOW. + + _Lent by Albert Moore, Esq._ + +"The word 'impressionist' has come to have a bad meaning in art. +Visions of Whistler come before you when you hear it. Such visions are +not of the best possible augury, for who loves a nightmare?" + + _Oracle._ + + +"Like the landscape art of Japan, they are harmonious decorations, and +a dozen or so of such engaging sketches placed in the upper panels of +a lofty apartment would afford a justifiable and welcome alternative +even to noble tapestries or Morris wallpapers."--_F. Wedmore, "Four +Masters of Etching."_ + + +7.--NOCTURNE--BLACK AND GOLD. + +THE FIRE WHEEL. + +"Mr. Whistler has 'a sweet little isle of his own' in the shape of an +ample allowance of wall space all to himself for the display of his +six most noticeable works: 'Nocturnes' in black and gold, in blue and +silver, 'Arrangements' in black and brown, and 'Harmonies' in amber +and black. + +"These weird productions--enigmas sometimes so occult that OEdipus +might be puzzled to solve them--need much subtle explanation."--_Daily +Telegraph._ + + +8.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND BROWN. + +THE FUR JACKET. + +"Mr. Whistler has whole-length portraits, or rather the shadows of +people, shapes suggestive of good examples of portraiture _when +completed_. They are exhibited to illustrate a theory peculiar to the +artist. One is entitled An Arrangement in 'Black and Brown.'"--_Daily +Telegraph._ + + +"Mr. Whistler is anything but a robust and balanced genius."--_Times._ + + +"Whistler, with three portraits which he is pleased to call +'Arrangements,' and which look like ghosts." + + _Truth._ + + +"Some figure pieces, which this artist exhibits as 'harmonies' in +this, that, or the other, being, as they are, mere rubs-in of colour, +have no claim to be regarded as pictures."--_Scotsman._ + + +"We are threatened with a Whistler exhibition. The periodical +inflictions with which this gentleman tries the patience of a +long-suffering public generally take some fantastic form to +attract attention. It is an evidence of the painter's worldly +acuteness that this should be so, for public attention may be drawn by +such outbursts of eccentricity to such work as would never impress +sensible people on its bare merit."--_Oracle._ + + +9.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND SILVER. + + _Lent by Mrs. Leyland._ + +"It seems to us a pity that an artist of Mr. Whistler's known ability +should exhibit such an extraordinary collection of pictile +nightmares."--_Society._ + + +"MR. BOWEN: 'Do you consider detail and composition essential to a +work of art?' + +"MR. JONES: 'Most certainly I do.' + +"MR. BOWEN: 'Then what detail and composition do you find in this +"Nocturne"?' + +"MR. JONES: 'Absolutely none.' + +"MR. BOWEN: 'Do you think two hundred guineas a large price for that +picture?' + +"MR. JONES: 'Yes, when you think of the amount of earnest work done +for a smaller sum.'" + + _Evidence of Mr. Jones, R.A., + Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +10.--NOCTURNE. + +IN BLACK AND GOLD--THE FALLING ROCKET. + +"A dark bluish surface, with dots on it, and the faintest adumbrations +of shape under the darkness, is gravely called a Nocturne in Black and +Gold." + + _Knowledge._ + + +"His Nocturne, black and gold, 'The Falling Rocket,' shows such wilful +and headlong perversity that one is almost disposed to despair of an +artist who, in a sane moment [_sic_], could send such a daub to any +exhibition."--_Telegraph._ + + +"For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for the protection of the +purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into +the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly +approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, +much of cockney impudence before now, but never expected to hear a +coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the +public's face." + + _Professor John Ruskin, + July 2, 1877._ + + +"The 'Nocturne in black and gold' is not a serious work to me." + + _Mr. Firth, R.A.--Evidence at Westminster, + Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +"The 'Nocturne in black and gold,' I do not think a serious work +of art." + + _The Art Critic of the "Times." + Evidence at Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +"The Nocturne in black and gold has not the merit of the other two +pictures, and it would be impossible to call it a serious work of art. +Mr. Whistler's picture is only one of the thousand failures to paint +night. The picture is not worth two hundred guineas." + + _Evidence of Mr. Jones, R.A. + Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +11.--NOCTURNE--OPAL AND SILVER. + + _Lent by H. Theobald, Esq._ + +"With what feelings must we regard the mad new style, the Nocturnes in +'Blue and Silver,' the Harmonies in Flesh-colour and Pink, the Notes +in Blue and Opal."--_Knowledge._ + + +"The blue and black smudges which purport to depict the 'Thames at +Night.'"--_Life._ + + +12.--HARMONY IN GREEN AND ROSE. + +THE MUSIC ROOM. + + _Lent by Madame Reveillon._ + +"He paints in soot-colours and mud-colours, but, far from enjoying +primary hues, has little or no perception of the loveliness of +secondary or tertiary colour."--_Merrie England._ + + +13.--CREPUSCULE IN FLESH COLOUR AND GREEN. + +VALPARAISO. + + _Lent by Graham Robertson, Esq._ + +"Now, the best achievement of The Impressionist School, to which Mr. +Whistler belongs [_sic_], is the rendering of air--not air made +palpable and comparatively easy to paint, by fog--but atmosphere which +is the medium of light."--_Merrie England._ + + +14.--CAPRICE IN PURPLE AND GOLD. + +THE GOLD SCREEN. + + _Lent by Cyril Flower, Esq., M.P._ + +"I take it to be admitted by those who do not conclude that art is +necessarily great which has the misfortune to be unacceptable, that it +is not by his paintings so much as by his etchings that Mr. Whistler's +name may aspire to live."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +15.--SYMPHONY IN GREY AND GREEN. + +THE OCEAN. + + _Lent by Mrs. Peter Taylor._ + +"In Mr. Whistler's picture, 'Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean,' +the composition is ugly, the sky opaque, the suggestion of sea leaden +and without light or motion."--_Times._ + + +"Mr. Whistler continues these experiments in colour which are now +known as 'Symphonies.' It may be questioned whether these performances +are to be highly valued, except as feats accomplished under needless +and self-imposed restrictions--much as writing achieved by the feet of +a penman who has not been deprived of the use of his hands."--_Graphic._ + + "We can paint a cat or a fiddle, so that they look as if we could + take them up; but we cannot imitate the Ocean or the Alps. We can + imitate fruit, but not a tree; flowers, but not a pasture; + cut-glass, but not the rainbow."--_John Ruskin, Esq., Teacher of + Art._ + + [Sidenote: [Illustration]] + + +16.--NOCTURNE. + +GREY AND GOLD--CHELSEA SNOW. + + _Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._ + +"Mr. Whistler sends two of his studies of moonlight, in which form is +eschewed for harmonies of 'Grey and Gold' and 'Blue and Silver;' +and which, for the crowd of exhibition visitors, resolve themselves +into riddles or mystifications.... In a word, painting to Mr. Whistler +is the exact correlative of music, as vague, as purely emotional, as +released from all functions of representation. + +"He is really building up art out of his own imperfections [_sic!_] +instead of setting himself to supply them."--_Times._ + + +17.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND SILVER--BATTERSEA REACH. + + _Lent by W. G. Rawlinson, Esq._ + +"J. M. Whistler is here again with his nocturnes." + + _Scotsman._ + + +18.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND SILVER--CHELSEA. + + _Lent by W. C. Alexander, Esq._ + +"Mr. Whistler confines himself to two small canvases of the nocturne +kind. One is covered with smudgy blue and the other with dirty black." + + _Saturday Review._ + + +"A reputation, for a time, imperilled by original absurdity"--_F. +Wedmore, "Academy."_ + + +"I think Mr. Wedmore takes the Nocturnes and Arrangements too +seriously. They are merely first beginnings of pictures, differing +from ordinary first beginnings in having no composition. The great +originality was in venturing to exhibit them." + + _P. G. Hamerton, "Academy."_ + + +19.--NOCTURNE. + +GREY AND GOLD--WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. + + _Lent by the Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham._ + +"Two of Mr. Whistler's 'colour symphonies'--a 'Nocturne in Blue and +Gold' and a 'Nocturne in Black and Gold.' If he did not exhibit these +as pictures under peculiar and, what seems to most people, pretentious +titles, they would be entitled to their due meed of admiration +[_sic!_]. But they only come one step nearer pictures than delicately +graduated tints on a wall-paper do. + +"He must not attempt, with that happy, half-humorous audacity which +all his dealings with his own works suggests, to palm off his +deficiencies upon us as manifestations of power."--_Daily Telegraph._ + + +20.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND GOLD--SOUTHAMPTON WATER. + + _Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._ + +"There is always danger that efforts of this class may degenerate into +the merely tricky and meretricious; and already a suspicion arises +that the artist's eccentricity is somewhat too premeditated and +self-conscious."--_Graphic._ + + +21.--BLUE AND SILVER. + +BLUE WAVE--BIARRITZ. + + _Lent by Gerald Potter, Esq._ + +"Mr. Whistler is possessed of much audacity and eccentricity, and +these are useful qualities in an artist who desires to be talked +about. When he comes out into the open, and deals with daylight, we +find these studies to be only the first washes of pictures. He leaves +off where other artists begin. He shirks all the difficulties ahead, +and asks the spectator to complete the picture himself."--_Daily +Telegraph._ + +"The absence, seemingly, of any power, such as the great marine +painters had, of drawing forms of water, whether in a broad and +wind-swept tidal river or on the high seas...." + + _F. Wedmore, + "Nineteenth Century."_ + + +22.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND BROWN. + +MISS ROSA CORDER. + + _Lent by Graham Robertson, Esq._ + +"It is bad enough, in all conscience, to be caricatured by the gifted +pencil and brushes of the admirable Whistler; and it is surely adding +insult to injury to describe the victims and sufferers as +'Arrangements.' With regard to Mr. Whistler's Symphonies, Harmonies, +and so on, we will relate a parable. Here it is:--A lively young +donkey sang a sweet love song to the dawn, and so disturbed all the +neighbourhood, that the neighbours went to the donkey and begged him +to desist. He continued his braying for some time, and then ended with +what appeared, to his own ears, a flourish of surpassing brilliancy. + +"Will you be good enough to give over that hideous noise?" said the +neighbours. + +"'Good Olympus!' said the donkey, 'did you say hideous noise? Why, +that is a "Symphony," which means a concord of sweet sounds, as you +may see by referring to any dictionary.' + +"'But,' said the neighbours, 'we do _not_ think that "Symphony" is the +word to describe your performance. "Cacophony" would be more correct, +and that means "a bad set of sounds."' + +"'How absurdly you talk!' said the donkey. 'I will refer it to my +fellow-asses, and let them decide.' + +"The donkeys decided that the young donkey's song was a most +symphonious and harmonious, sweet song; so he continues to bray as +melodiously as ever. There is, we believe, a moral to this parable, if +we only knew what it was. Perhaps the piercing eye of the '_Nocturnal_ +Whistler' may find it out."--_Echo._ + + +"Miss Rosa Corder, and Mr. H. Irving as Philip, are two large blotches +of dark canvas. When I have time I am going again to find out which is +Rose and which is Irving. + +"The rest of the collection is marred by the impatience which has +prevented his achieving any finished work of Art."--_Weekly Press._ + + +23.--"HARMONY IN GREY AND GREEN." + +PORTRAIT OF MISS ALEXANDER. + + _Lent by W. Alexander, Esq._ + +"A sketch of Miss Alexander, in which much must be +imagined."--_Standard._ + + +"There is character in it, but it is unpleasant character. Of anything +like real flesh tones the painting is quite innocent."--_Builder._ + + +"But what can we say of Mr. Whistler? His portrait of Miss +Alexander is certainly one of the strangest and most eccentric +specimens of Portraiture we ever saw. If we were unacquainted with his +singular theories of Art, we should imagine he had merely made a +sketch and left it, before the colours were dry, in a room where +chimney-sweeps were at work.... Nobody who sets any value upon the +roses and lilies that adorn the cheeks of our blooming girls can +accept such murky tints as these as representative of a young English +lady"--_Era._ + + +"It is simply a disagreeable presentment of a disagreeable young +lady."--_Liverpool Weekly Mercury._ + + +"Mr. Whistler again appears on the walls with a characteristic +full-length life-size portrait of a girl, Miss Alexander. + +"This work is devoid of colour, being arranged in Black and White and +intermediate tones of grey. The general effect is dismal in the +extreme, and one cannot but wonder how an artist of undoubted talent +should wilfully persist in such perversities of judgment."--_Western +Daily Mercury._ + + +"Miss Alexander, almost in Black and White, and about the most +unattractive piece of work in the Galleries."--_Edinburgh Daily +Review._ + + +"A 'gruesomeness in Grey.' + +"Well, bless thee, J. Whistler! We do not hanker after your brush +system. Farewell!"--_Punch._ + + +"'AN ARRANGEMENT IN SILVER AND BILE.' + +"The artist has represented this bilious young lady as looking haughty +in a dirty white dress, a grey polonaise, bound by a grey green sash, +a grey hat, with the most unhealthy green feather; furthermore, she +wears black shoes with green bows, and stands defiantly on a grey +floor cloth, opposite a grey wall with a black dado. Two dyspeptic +butterflies hover wearily above her head in search _of a bit of +colour_ ... evidently losing heart at the grey expanse around.... A +picture should charm, not depress, it should tend to elevate our +thoughts!"--_Society._ + + +"This picture represents a child of ten, and is called a harmony in +grey and green, but the prevailing tone is a rather unpleasant yellow, +and the complexion of the face is wholly unchildlike."--_Echo._ + + +"A large etching in oil, a 'Rhapsody in Raw Child and Cobwebs,' by Mr. +Whistler."--_Artist._ + + +"Mr. Whistler is as spectral as ever in an unattractive portrait of an +awkward little girl, happily not rendered additionally ridiculous by a +musical title." + + _Bedford Observer._ + + +"Flattery is objectionable in art as elsewhere, but some portrait +painters seem to find it impossible to tell the truth without being +rude."--_Academy._ + + +"Mr. Whistler has a portrait of a young lady that excites absolute +astonishment. + +"What charm can there be in such colours as these? What effect do they +produce which would not have been better by warmer and less repulsive +tints?" + + _Leeds Mercury._ + + +"Mr. Whistler's single contribution is a child's portrait, posed and +painted in a rather distant, if obsequious, imitation of the manner of +Velasquez, the great difference being that whereas the Spaniard's work +is most remarkable for supreme distinction, the present portrait is +uncompromisingly vulgar." + + _Magazine of Art._ + + +24.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND SILVER--BOGNOR. + + _Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._ + +"We protest against those foppish airs and affectations by which Mr. +Whistler impresses on us his contempt of public opinion. In landscape +he contributes what he persists in calling a Nocturne in 'Blue and +Silver,' and a Nocturne in 'Black and Gold' which is a mere +insult to the intelligence of his admirers. It is very difficult to +believe that Mr. Whistler is not openly laughing at us."--_Pall Mall +Gazette._ + + +25.--NOCTURNE. + +BATTERSEA REACH. + + _Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._ + +"Under the same roof with Mr. Whistler's strange productions is the +collection of animal paintings done by various artists for the +proprietors of the _Graphic_, and very refreshing it is to turn into +this agreeably lighted room and rest on comfortable settees whilst +looking at 'Mother Hubbard's Dog,' or the sweet little pussy cats in +the 'Happy Family.'" + + _Liverpool Courier._ + + +"A few smears of colour, such as a painter might make in cleaning his +paint brushes, and which, neither near at hand nor far off, neither +from one side nor from the other, nor from in front, do more than +vaguely suggest a shore and bay, was described as a Note in Blue and +Brown.... One who found these pictures other than insults to his +artistic sense could never be reached by reasoning."--_Knowledge._ + + +26.--GREEN AND GREY. + +CHANNEL. + + _Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._ + + +27.--PINK AND GREY. + +CHELSEA. + + _Lent by Cyril Flower, Esq., M.P._ + +"... of the insolent madness of that school of which Mr. Whistler is the +most peccant--we wish we could say the only--representative."--_Knowledge._ + + +28.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND GOLD--VALPARAISO. + + _Lent by Alexander Ionides, Esq._ + +"'A Nocturne' or two by Mr. Whistler--and here we have it in the usual +style--a daub of blue and a spot or two of yellow to illustrate ships +at sea on a dark night, and a splash and splutter of brightness on a +black ground to depict a display of fireworks." + + _Norwich Argus._ + + +29.--GREEN AND GREY. + +THE OYSTER SMACKS--EVENING. + + _Lent by Alexander Ionides, Esq._ + +"Other people paint localities; Mr. Whistler makes artistic +experiments."--_Academy._ + + +30.--GREY AND BLACK. + +SKETCH. + + _Lent by Alexander Ionides, Esq._ + + +31.--BROWN AND SILVER. + +OLD BATTERSEA BRIDGE. + + _Lent by Alexander Ionides, Esq._ + +"Nor can I imagine any one acquainted with Mr. Whistler's works +speaking of any of them as 'completed.'"--_Letter to "Pall Mall."_ + + +32.--NOCTURNE. + +BLACK AND GOLD. + + +33.--SYMPHONY IN WHITE, No. 11. + +THE LITTLE WHITE GIRL. + + _Lent by Gerald Potter, Esq._ + +"Another picture, 'The Little White Girl' was exhibited about the same +time, containing the germ of that paradoxical Whistlerian humour +lately so fully exemplified in various places about London. It was +called 'A Little White Girl' in the catalogue, and yet its colour +generally was grimy grey."--_London._ + + +"The white girl was standing at the side of a mirror where the laws of +incidence and refraction would unfortunately not permit her to see her +own beauty." + + _Merrie England._ + + +34.--NOCTURNE. + +BLUE AND SILVER--CREMORNE LIGHTS. + + _Lent by Gerald Potter, Esq._ + +"I have expressed, and still adhere to the opinion, that these +pictures only come one step nearer than a delicately tinted wall +paper." + + _The Art Critic of the "Times" + Evidence at Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +"Paintings, like some of the 'Nocturnes' and some of the 'Arrangements,' +are defended only by a generous self-deception, when it is urged +for them that they will be famous to-morrow because they are not famous +to-day." + + _Mr. Wedmore, + "Nineteenth Century."_ + + +35.--GREY AND SILVER. + +CHELSEA WHARF. + + _Lent by Gerald Potter, Esq._ + + +36.--GREY AND SILVER. + +OLD BATTERSEA REACH. + + _Lent by Madame Coronio._ + + +37.--BLUE AND SILVER. + +"He has no atmosphere and no light. Instead of air he studies various +kinds of fog--and his 'values' are the relative powers of darkness, +not of light. He never paints a sky."--_Merrie England._ + + +38.--NOCTURNE. + +_BLUE AND GOLD--ST. MARK'S, VENICE._ + + _Lent by Monsieur Gallimard._ + + "The mannerism of Canaletto is the most degraded that I know in + the whole range of art.... + + "... It gives no one single architectural ornament, however + near--so much form as might enable us even to guess at its + actual one; and this I say not rashly, for I shall prove it + by placing portions of detail accurately copied from Canaletto + side by side with engravings from the daguerreotype. + + "... There is _no_ stone drawing, _no_ vitality of architecture + like Prout's."--_Prof. Ruskin, Art Teacher._ + + [Sidenote: [Illustration]] + + +"In Mr. Whistler's productions one might safely say that there is no +culture."--_Athenaeum._ + + +"Imagine a man of genius following in the wake of +Whistler!"--_Oracle._ + + +"The measure of originality has at times been overrated through the +innocent error of the budding amateur, who in the earlier stage of his +enlightenment confuses the beginning with the end, accepts the +intention for the adequate fulfilment, and exalts an adroit sketch +into the rank of a permanent picture." + + _F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_ + + +39.--CREPUSCULE IN OPAL. + + _Lent by Fred. Jameson, Esq._ + +"Mr. Whistler is eminently an 'Impressionist.' The final business of +art is not with 'impressions.' We want not 'impressionists' but +'expressionists,' men who can say what they mean because they know +what they have heard. [_Sic!_] + + +"We want not always the blotches and misty suggestions of the +impressionist, _&c._"--_Artist._ + + +40.--HARMONY IN FLESH COLOUR AND GREEN. + +THE BALCONY. + + _Lent by John Cavafy, Esq., M.D._ + +"It is perhaps a little difficult for any critic to be quite +absolutely just to Mr. Whistler at present, on account of his +eccentricities and his apparent determination to make us forget the +qualities of the artist in our amusement at the freaks and fancies of +the man."--_P. G. Hamerton, in the "Academy."_ + + +"_A Variation in Flesh Colour and Green._ The damsels--they were not +altogether meritorious. The draughtsmanship displayed in them was +anything but 'searching.'"--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"At about the same time the artist exhibited other sketches (we ask +indulgence for the word) of a like character, notes of impressions of +white dresses, furniture, balconies, and incidental faces and +figures." + + _Merrie England._ + + +"The 'evolution principle' has been visibly in operation for a dozen +years or so in the successive Whistlers put before the public during +that time. First of all we remember pictures of ladies pale and +attenuate poring with tender interest over vermilion scarfs. The taint +of realism was on them, but even in them were hints of the pensive +humour that was to fetch mankind in the well-known 'arrangements' at a +later time. A good deal was left to the spectator's imagination even +in them."--_London._ + + +"We note his predilections for dinginess and dirt." + + _Weekly Press._ + + +41.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK. + +LA DAME AU BRODEQUIN JAUNE. + +"All these pictures strike us alike. + +"They seem like half-materialised ghosts at a spiritualistic _seance_. +I cannot help wondering when they will gain substance and appear more +clearly out of their environing fog, or when they will melt altogether +from my attentive gaze."--_Echo._ + +"He has placed one of his portraits on an asphalte floor and against a +coal-black background, the whole apparently representing a dressy +woman in an _inferno_ of the worldly."--_Merrie England._ + +"Mr. Whistler has a capricious rendering of a lady dressed in black, +in a black recess, on a dark green floor. She is turning affectedly +half-round towards the spectator as she buttons the _gant de +suede_ upon her left hand, _&c._ _&c._ Its obvious affectations render +the work displeasing."--_Morning Advertiser._ + + +42.--ARRANGEMENT IN GREY AND BLACK. + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + + _Lent by the Corporation of Glasgow._ + +"The purpose of this picture is a form of hero-worship which would +certainly not have received the approbation of Carlyle. + +"... This very doubtful masterpiece--unhappy ratepayers of +Glasgow."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + +"... and to have recorded on a doleful canvas the head and figure of +Carlyle...."--_F. Wedmore._ + + +"... The rugged simplicity of Mr. Carlyle ... to have painted these +things alone--however strange their mannerism or incomplete their +technique." + + _Nineteenth Century._ + + +"The portentous purchase by the civic authorities of Mr. Whistler's +senile Carlyle renders it necessary for that section of the community +who are not enamoured of Impressionism to watch with some vigilance +the next steps taken by that body towards the formation of the +permanent collection. + +"A portrait which omits entirely to bring out the individuality of +the sitter, stands but little chance of recognition even from +immediate posterity." + + _Letter to "Glasgow Herald," March 4, 1892._ + + +"We cannot forget his encounter some years ago with Mr. Ruskin, nor +the contemptuous terms in which that foremost of art critics denounced +his work. It has been left to Glasgow to rectify Mr. Ruskin's blunder +in this matter, and it vindicates the merits of the American artist +over whose artistic vagaries--his nocturnes and harmonies in blue and +gold--the _whole press of Britain_ made merry." + + _Dundee Advertiser._ + + +"There is, among portraits of great writers, Mr. Whistler's portrait +of Carlyle. It is a picture whose story is complete, whose honours +have been gathered abroad--in Paris, in Brussels, in Munich. Its +destiny has been accomplished; it belongs to the City of Glasgow, and +from the corporation of that city was borrowed for the Victorian +Exhibition. The corporation lent it in good faith; the borrowers have +treated it with all the indignity it is in their power to bestow on +it. + +"Could there be a better epitome of the recent history of art in +England? One work of Mr. Whistler's is received with high honour +in the Luxembourg on its way to the Louvre; and at that very moment +another work of his, worthy to rank with the first, is hoist with +equally high disrespect to the ceiling of a gallery in London."--_N. +Y. Tribune, Jan. 17, 1892._ + + +43.--HARMONY IN PINK AND GREY. + +PORTRAIT OF LADY MEUX. + + _Lent by Sir Henry Meux._ + +"Portrait of Mrs. Meux, in which it was not so much the face as the +figure and the movement that came to be deftly suggested, if hardly +elaborately expressed."--_F. Wedmore._ + +"All Mr. Whistler's work is unfinished. It is sketchy. He no doubt +possesses artistic qualities, and he has got appreciation of qualities +of tone; but he is not complete, and all his works are in the nature +of sketching." + + _The Art Critic of the "Times," + Evidence at Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +44.--ARRANGEMENT IN GREY AND BLACK. + +PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER'S MOTHER. + + _Photograph of Picture._ + +"This canvas is large and much of it vacant. + +"A dim, cold light fills the room, where the flat, grey wall is +only broken by a solitary picture in black and white; a piece of +foldless, creaseless, Oriental flowered crape hangs from the cornice. +And here, in this solemn chamber, sits the lady in mournful garb. The +picture has found few admirers among the thousands who seek to while +away the hours at Burlington House, and for this result the painter +has only to thank himself."--_Times._ + + +"'Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother,' is +another of Mr. Whistler's experiments. + +"It is not a picture, and we fail to discover any _object_ that the +artist can have in view in restricting himself almost entirely to +black and grey."--_Examiner._ + + +"The 'arrangement' is stiff and ugly enough to repel many."--_Hour._ + + +"Before such pictures as the full-length portraits by Mr. Whistler, +critic and spectator are alike puzzled. Criticism and admiration seem +alike impossible, and the mind vacillates between a feeling that the +artist is playing a practical joke upon the spectator, or that the +painter is suffering from some peculiar optical delusion. After all, +there are certain accepted canons about what constitutes good drawing, +good colour, and good painting, and when an artist deliberately sets +himself to ignore or violate all of these, it is desirable that +his work should not be classed with that of ordinary artists."--_Times._ + + "He that telleth a tale to ... Carlyle's majority speaketh to one + in a slumber: when he hath told his tale he will say, What is the + matter?" + +[Illustration] + + + + +_RESUME._ + +"It is impossible to take Mr. Whistler seriously." + + _Advertiser._ + + +"A combination of circumstances has, within the last year or two, +brought the name and work of Mr. Whistler into special publicity.... + +"At the Grosvenor Gallery the less desirable of his designs aroused +the inconsiderate ire of a man of genius and splendid authority. + +"If it be Mr. Whistler's theory that that which all the world of +greatest artists (?) has mistaken for mere means has been in very +seriousness the end, then the aim of Art is immeasurably lowered!... + +"If there be anything to the point, it is to implore us to take a +stone for bread, and the grammar of a language in place of its +literature. + +"Mr. Whistler has assumed that it is only the painter who is occupied +with art.... Unless he is a very exceptional man.... If he is not of +the school of Fulham, he is of the school of Holland Park, or of the +Grove End Road. + +"Has he, like Mr. Ruskin, devoted thirty years of a poet's life to the +Galleries of Europe? + +"Has he, like Diderot, inquired curiously into the meaning and message +of this thing and that? And _appreciating Greuze_, been able to +_appreciate Chardin_?(!!)" + + _Mr. Wedmore, + "Nineteenth Century."_ + + +"Mr. Ruskin's whole body of doctrine, from the very young days, in +which he took the duty of teacher, on to his old age, was contradicted +by Mr. Whistler's pictures."--_Merrie England._ + +"In painting, his success is infrequent, and it is limited. + +"In painting, Mr. Whistler is an impressionist. His best painting +betrays something of that almost modern sensitiveness to pleasurable +juxtapositions of delicate colour which we admire in Orchardson, in +Linton (_sic!_), and in Albert Moore; it betrays, sometimes, as in a +portrait of Miss Alexander, a deftness of brushwork in the wave of a +feather, in the curve of a hat ... and of high art qualities it +betrays not much besides. + +"It is true that the originality of his painted work is somewhat apt +to be dependent on the innocent error that confuses the beginning with +the end, accepts the intention for the execution, and exalts an adroit +sketch into the rank of a permanent picture." + + _F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_ + + +"I think Mr. Whistler had great powers at first, which he has not +since justified." + + _Mr. Jones, R.A. + Evidence in Court, Nov. 16, 1878._ + + +"The right time and the right place for the conspicuousness of an +Impressionist were undoubtedly England, and the moment when Mr. +Whistler rose up and astonished her. + +"In Paris he was one of many, though he would be at peace in +France, that peace would not be unattended with a certain comparative +obscurity. + +"Inconspicuous solitude would not have had the same charms for +him."--_Merrie England._ + + +"Au musee du Luxembourg, vient d'etre place, de M. WHISTLER, le +splendide _Portrait de Mme Whistler mere_, une oeuvre destinee a +l'eternite des admirations, une oeuvre sur laquelle la consecration +des siecles semble avoir mis la patine d'un Rembrandt, d'un Titien ou +d'un Velasquez."--_Chronique des Beaux-Arts._ + + + MORAL. + + "Modern _British_ (!) art will now be represented in the National + Gallery of the Luxembourg by one of the finest paintings due to + the brush of an _English_ (!) artist, namely, Mr. Whistler's + portrait of his mother."--_Illustrated London News._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +_A Zealous Inquirer_ + + +"A brown-paper covered catalogue ... compiled by Mr. Whistler.... + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Mar. 23, 1892.] + +"Several opinions (and his 'evidence at Westminster') are quoted of +'Mr Jones, R.A.,' in the year 1878. Who is Mr. Jones, R.A.? Mr. Jones, +R.A. (of whom the Duke of Wellington--but no matter...), died in 1869. +Mr Burne-Jones was not elected an A.R.A. until 1885. I am afraid I +expose myself, but I still venture to ask, who is 'Mr Jones, R.A.'?" + + + + +_Final Acknowledgments_ + + + [Sidenote: _The World_, Mar. 30, 1892.] + +Atlas,--Your correspondent proposes that "Mr. Jones, R.A." is not +R.A.--but _A._R.A. + +_You_ know these things, Atlas--perhaps he is right, and curiously +microscopic--for surely here we have "a difference without a +distinction!" + +However, R.A. or A.R.A., and, in my opinion he deserves to be both, I +personally owe Mr. Jones a friendly gratitude which I am pleased to +acknowledge; for rare indeed is the courage with which, on the first +public occasion, he sacrificed himself, in the face of all-astounded +etiquette, and future possible ridicule, in order to help write the +history of another. + +These things we like to remember, Atlas, you and I--the bright things, +the droll things, the charming things of this pleasant life--and here, +too, in this lovely land they are understood--and keenly appreciated. + +As to those others--alas! I am afraid we have done with them. It +was our amusement to convict--they thought we cared to convince! + +_Allons!_ They have served our wicked purpose--Atlas, we "collect" no +more. + + "_Autres gens, autres moeurs._" + +PARIS, _March 26, 1892_. + + + + +[Illustration] + + +_FINIS_ + + + + +_INDEX_ + + + _Action, The_, 2. + + _Admission, An_, 71. + + _Advanced Critic, An_, 244. + + _Advantage of Explanation, The_, 245. + + _Another Poacher in the Chelsea Preserves_, 233. + + _Apology, An_, 107. + + _Apostasy, An_, 250. + + _'Arry in the Grosvenor_, 72. + + _Art Critic of the "Times," The_, 35. + + _Art Critic's Friend, The_, 277. + + "_Aussi que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?_", 225. + + _Auto-biographical_, 288. + + "_Autre Temps autre Moeurs_", 189. + + + _"Balaam's Ass"_, 41. + + + _Committee of the "National Art Exhibition," To the_, 164. + + _Complacent One, The_, 196. + + _"Confidences" with an Editor_, 47. + + _Conviction_, 88. + + _Correction, A_, 66. + + _Critic "Catching on," The_, 194. + + _Critic's Analysis_, 44. + + _Critic's "Copy"_, 50. + + _Critic's Mind Considered, The_, 45. + + _Critic-flaneur, The_, 197. + + + _Distinction, A_, 119. + + _Document, A_, 121. + + + _Eager Authority, An_, 70. + + _Early Laurels_, 176. + + _Easy Expert, The_, 113. + + _Editor's Anxiety, An_, 264. + + _Embroidered Interview, An_, 219. + + _Encouragement_, 74. + + _End of the Piece, The_, 282. + + _Etchings and Dry-points_, 93. + + "_Et tu, Brute!_", 259. + + _Exit the Prompter_, 283. + + _Exploded Plot, The_, vii. + + _Extraordinary Piratical Plot, An_, v. + + + _Fate of an Anecdote, The_, 81. + + _Final_, 39. + + _Final Acknowledgments_, 333. + + _Freeing a Last Friend_, 262. + + _Full Absolution_, 46. + + _Further Proposition, A_, 177. + + + _Great Literary Curiosity, A_, ix. + + + _Habit of Second Natures, The_, 236. + + _Hint, A_, 118. + + _Home of Taste, The_, 230. + + + _Imputation, An_, 188. + + _Inconsequences_, 79. + + _Inevitable, The_, 173. + + _In Excelsis_, 86. + + _Ingratitude_, 195. + + _Insinuation, An_, 187. + + _Interview with an Ex-President, An_, 205. + + + _"Jeux Innocents" in Tite Street_, 110. + + _Just Indignation_, 243. + + + _Last Effort, A_, x. + + _La Suite_, 61. + + _Later_, 54. + + _L'Envoi_, 285. + + "_Les points sur les i_", 130. + + _Line from the Land's End, A_, 111. + + + _Market Place, In the_, 239. + + _Mr. Whistler and his Critics_, 91. + + _Mr. Whistler "had on his own Toast"_, 289. + + _Mr. Whistler's Paper Hunt_, viii. + + _Mr. Whistler's "Ten o'Clock"_, 131. + + + _Naif Enfant_, 68. + + _New Dynasty, The_, 218. + + _"Noblesse oblige"_, 174. + + _Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces_, 293. + + _Nostalgia_, 184. + + "_Nous avons change tout cela!_", 169. + + + _Official Bumbledom_, 223. + + _Official Letter, An_, 229. + + _Opportunity, An_, 181. + + _Opportunity Neglected, The_, 183. + + + _Painter-Etcher Papers, The_, 52. + + _"Pall Mall" Puzzled, The_, 221. + + _Panic_, 241. + + _Philanthropy and Art_, 166. + + _Played-out Policy, A_, 199. + + _Point Acknowledged, The_, 43. + + _Position, The_, 37. + + _Professor Ruskin's Group_, 20. + + _Prologue_, 1. + + _Proposal, A_, 51. + + _Propositions_, 76. + + _Propositions--No. 2_, 115. + + _Publisher's Note_, iii. + + + _Quand meme!_, 165. + + _Question, A_, 279. + + + _Rassurez vous!_, 265. + + _Rebuke, A_, 129. + + _Red Rag, The_, 126. + + _Remonstrance, A_, 75. + + "_Rengaines!_", 161. + + _Retrospect, A_, 213. + + _Royal Society of British Artists and their Signboard_, 226. + + + _Sacrilege_, 124. + + _Seizure of Mr. Whistler's Pirated Writings_, vi. + + _Serious Sarcasm_, 38. + + _Statistics_, 211. + + _Straight Tip, A_, 69. + + _Suggestion, A_, 235. + + _Suspicion, A_, 87. + + + _Taking the Bait_, 106. + + _Talent in a Napkin_, 193. + + _Tenderness in Tite Street_, 162. + + _Testimony_, 247. + + _Troubled One, A_, 46. + + + _Unanswered Letter, An_, 78. + + _Uncovered Opinions_, 80. + + + _Warning, A_, 67. + + _"Whacking Whistler"_, 269. + + _What "Mr. Whistler had on his own Toast"_, 291. + + _Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics_, 21. + + _Whistler's Grievance_, 266, 273. + + + _Zealous Inquirer, A_, 332. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES*** + + +******* This file should be named 24650.txt or 24650.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/5/24650 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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