Chapter 12

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_!!

_Naïveté_, 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.

_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._

_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 _à 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._

_NOCTURNES, MARINES, AND CHEVALET PIECES_

_A CATALOGUE_

_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."--_Athenæum._

"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._