TO OSCAR ON HIS "TOUR."
Oscar—We, of Tite Street and Beaufort Gardens, joy in your triumphsThe World, Feb. 15, 1882.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.Butterfly
Atlas, how could you!
I know you carry theWorldon 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?
The World, Feb. 22, 1882.
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?
Butterfly
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.
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.Butterfly
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 theamateur, 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.
Butterfly
Pré Charmoy, Autun,Saône 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 gainby your affording me the opportunity of speaking of your work at length.
I remain, Sir,Your obedient servant,P. G. HAMERTON.
James Whistler, Esq.
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 privateThe "book on etching."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.
[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.
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.
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.
[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.... Iunderstand 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.
[21]"M. Courbet is looked upon as the representative of Realism in France. The truth is that Edouard Frère, 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.
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.
[21]"Doré (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.[21]"Daubigny (Charles François).—If landscape can be satisfactorily painted without either drawing or colour—Daubigny is the man to do it."—P. G. HAMERTON,Fine Arts Quarterly.
TO THE EDITOR:
Sir—InScribner's Magazinefor this month there appears an article on Mr. Seymour Haden, the eminent surgeon etcher, by a Mr. Hamerton,New York Tribune, Sept. 12, 1880and 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 impressionswhich 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 werenot"originally printed by a steel-plate printer"; that the impressions werenotso 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 werenot"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 wasnot"found that they produced impressions never before approached evenby 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 thatit 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, whodidtake 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—anaccident 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 sympathizingraconteurwill regret in the destruction of this mere jumble of statistics that Mr. Hamerton calls "Mr. Haden's anecdote."
Venice, Aug. 16, 1880.Butterfly
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 theNew York Tribune.
Mr. Hamerton in his article inScribner's Monthlysimply quoted a passage from one of Mr. Haden's lectures on Etching, published in Cassell'sMagazine 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.
Pré Charmoy, Autun, Saône et Loire,Sept. 28, 1880.
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 theNew York Tribunewill be as funny as his note to Mr. Whistler, which has just been forwarded from London.
Venice, Oct. 7.Café 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"?
Butterfly
TO THE EDITOR:
Sir—A friend in America has sent me the letter from Mr. Whistler which refers to my article inScribneron Mr. Haden's etchings. The letter begins as follows:
InScribner's Magazinefor this month there appears an article on Mr. Seymour Haden,New York Tribune, Oct. 11, 1880.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'sMagazine 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 inScribnerwas sent to Mr. Haden before it was published.[22][22]REFLECTION:Queen's evidence.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,REFLECTION:Q. E. D.Butterflybut it is a breach of ordinary good manners in speaking of a well-known writer!
Yours obediently,P. G. HAMERTON.Autun, Sept. 29, 1880.
MR.WHISTLERANDHIS CRITICSA CATALOGUEButterfly"Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them.""Whobreaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"ButterflyEtchings 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 deficienciesupon 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.REFLECTION:"Et voilà comme on écrit l'histoire."Butterfly"'Impressionistes,'and of these the various schools are represented byMr. 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.—NOCTURNERIVA."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.[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 theNew York Tribune."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.12.—NOCTURNEPALACES."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.—THEBRIDGE."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.[24]Mr. Wedmore is the lucky discoverer of the following:—"Vigour and exquisiteness are denied—are they not?—even to a Velasquez"!"They have a merit of their own, and I do not wish to understand it."[24]—F. Wedmore.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."Ourriver is naturally full of effects inblack 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.[25]The same Critic holds:"The Thames is beautiful from Maidenhead to Kew, but not from Battersea to Sheerness.""So little in them."[25]—P. G. Hamerton.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.[26]Elsewhere Mr. Wedmore is inspired to say—"The true collector mustgraduallyandpainfullyacquire the eye to judge of the impression."REFLECTION:Thisis possibly the process through which the preacher is passing.Butterfly"An artist who has never mastered the subtleties of accurate form."[26]—F. Wedmore.26.—THELITTLE LAGOON."Well, little new came of it, in etching; nothing new that was beautiful."—F. Wedmore.27.—NOCTURNE SHIPPING."Amazing!"Butterfly"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.REFLECTION:Like Eno's Fruit Salt or the "Anti-mal-de-Mer."Butterfly"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.—DRURYLANE."In Mr. Whistler's productions one might safely say that there is no culture."—Athenæum.32.—THE BALCONY."His colour is subversive."—Russian Press.33.—ALDERNEY STREET."The best art may be produced with trouble."[27]"I am not a Mede nor a Persian."—F. Wedmore.F. Wedmore.[27]34.—THE SMITHY."They produce a disappointing impression."[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."His Etchings seem weak when framed."[28]P. G. Hamerton.35.—STABLES."An unpleasing thing, and framed in Mr. Whistler's odd fashion."—City Press.36.—THE MAST.REFLECTION:At the service of critics of unequal sizes.Butterfly"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.REFLECTION:"Sometimes generally always."Butterfly"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.REFLECTION:This critic, true, is a Slade Professor.Butterfly"Scampering caprice."—S. Colvin."Mr. Whistler's drawing, which is sometimes that of a very slovenly master."42.—LONGVENICE."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.[29]?Butterfly"The utter absence, as far as my eye[29] may be trusted, of gradation."—F. Wedmore."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.—THELITTLE 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 gegründet scheinen, die dem Uneingeweihten unverständlich 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.[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."—Athenæum."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.[31]REFLECTION:The quid of sweet and bitter fancy.Butterfly"What the art of Mr. Whistler yields is a tertium quid."[31]—Sidney Colvin."All of which gems, I am sincerely thankful to say, I cannot appreciate."[32]REFLECTION:The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the City.Butterfly"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.""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."Voilà ce que l'on dit de moiDans la Gazette de Hollande.""Thereforeis 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."Butterfly
MR.WHISTLER
AND
HIS CRITICS
A CATALOGUE
Butterfly
"Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them."
"Whobreaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"
Butterfly
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 deficienciesupon 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.
REFLECTION:"Et voilà comme on écrit l'histoire."Butterfly
"'Impressionistes,'and of these the various schools are represented byMr. 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.—NOCTURNERIVA.
"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.
[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 theNew York Tribune.
"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.
12.—NOCTURNEPALACES.
"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.—THEBRIDGE.
"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.
[24]Mr. Wedmore is the lucky discoverer of the following:—"Vigour and exquisiteness are denied—are they not?—even to a Velasquez"!
"They have a merit of their own, and I do not wish to understand it."[24]—F. Wedmore.
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.
"Ourriver is naturally full of effects inblack 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.
[25]The same Critic holds:"The Thames is beautiful from Maidenhead to Kew, but not from Battersea to Sheerness."
"So little in them."[25]—P. G. Hamerton.
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.
[26]Elsewhere Mr. Wedmore is inspired to say—"The true collector mustgraduallyandpainfullyacquire the eye to judge of the impression."
REFLECTION:Thisis possibly the process through which the preacher is passing.Butterfly
"An artist who has never mastered the subtleties of accurate form."[26]—F. Wedmore.
26.—THELITTLE LAGOON.
"Well, little new came of it, in etching; nothing new that was beautiful."—F. Wedmore.
27.—NOCTURNE SHIPPING.
"Amazing!"Butterfly
"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.
REFLECTION:Like Eno's Fruit Salt or the "Anti-mal-de-Mer."Butterfly
"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.—DRURYLANE.
"In Mr. Whistler's productions one might safely say that there is no culture."—Athenæum.
32.—THE BALCONY.
"His colour is subversive."—Russian Press.
33.—ALDERNEY STREET.
"The best art may be produced with trouble."
[27]"I am not a Mede nor a Persian."—F. Wedmore.
F. Wedmore.[27]
34.—THE SMITHY.
"They produce a disappointing impression."
[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.
"His Etchings seem weak when framed."[28]
P. G. Hamerton.
35.—STABLES.
"An unpleasing thing, and framed in Mr. Whistler's odd fashion."—City Press.
36.—THE MAST.
REFLECTION:At the service of critics of unequal sizes.Butterfly
"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.
REFLECTION:"Sometimes generally always."Butterfly
"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.
REFLECTION:This critic, true, is a Slade Professor.Butterfly
"Scampering caprice."—S. Colvin.
"Mr. Whistler's drawing, which is sometimes that of a very slovenly master."
42.—LONGVENICE.
"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.
[29]?Butterfly
"The utter absence, as far as my eye[29] may be trusted, of gradation."—F. Wedmore.
"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.—THELITTLE 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 gegründet scheinen, die dem Uneingeweihten unverständlich 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.
[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."—Athenæum.
"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.
[31]REFLECTION:The quid of sweet and bitter fancy.Butterfly
"What the art of Mr. Whistler yields is a tertium quid."[31]—Sidney Colvin.
"All of which gems, I am sincerely thankful to say, I cannot appreciate."
[32]REFLECTION:The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the City.Butterfly"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."
"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.
"Voilà ce que l'on dit de moiDans la Gazette de Hollande."
"Thereforeis 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."
Butterfly
By the simple process of applying snippets of published sentences to works of art to which the original commentsThe Academy, Feb. 24, 1883.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.
Atlas—There are those, they tell me, who have the approval of the people—and live! For them thesuccès d'estime; for me, O Atlas, thesuccès d'exécration—the only tribute possible from the Mob to the Master!The World, Feb. 28, 1883.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.
Quantaux 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.Butterfly
Mr. Whistler's final breakfast of the year was given on Sunday last. The hospitable master has fresh wondersThe World, Dec. 26, 1883.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.
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 'ArryThe World, Jan. 2, 1884.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."
Myinvention 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!
Butterfly
St. Ives, Cornwall,Dec. 27.
Atlas—They have sent me theSpectator—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:
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!
"Donot 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 theTimes.'"
"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,à bientôt.
Butterfly
St. Ives, Cornwall,Jan. 25, 1834.