,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by--,t4 ,,leman ,,hare ,,whistler #ahcd-aijc ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,,alys ,,eyre ,,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,,henry ,b4 ,,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,,lucien ,,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,,josef ,,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,,mary ,e4 ,,coleridge4 ,,titian ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,millais4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,gainsborough4 ,,max ,,rothschild4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,luini4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,franz ,,hals4 ,,edgcumbe ,,staley4 ,,van ,,dyck4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci4 ,m4 ,w4 ,,brockwell4 ,,rubens4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,whistler4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,holbein4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,burne-,,jones4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,vig,e ,,le ,,brun4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,chardin4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,fragonard4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,memlinc4 ,w4 ,h4 ,j4 ,j4 ,c4 ,,weale4 ,,constable4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,raeburn4 ,,james ,l4 ,,caw4 ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,others in ,preparation4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,old ,,battersea ,,bridge4 ,frontispiece 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this nocturne was bought by the ,national ,collections ,fund from the ,whistler ,memorial ,exhibition4 ,it was one of the canvases brought forward during the cross-examination of the artist in the ,whistler v4 ,ruskin trial4 ,whistler ,,by ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration ,,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,jack ,,new ,,york3 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,co4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,old ,battersea ,bridge ,frontispiece ,in the ,national ,gallery ,page ,,ii4 ,nocturne1 ,st4 ,mark's1 ,venice #ad ,in the possession of ,john ,j4 ,cowan1 ,esq4 ,,iii4 ,the ,artist's ,studio #bd ,in the possession of ,douglas ,freshfield1 ,esq4 ,,iv4 ,portrait of my ,mother #cd ,in the ,luxembourg ,galleries1 ,paris ,v4 ,lillie in ,our ,alley #dj ,in the possession of ,john ,j4 ,cowan1 ,esq4 ,,vi4 ,nocturne1 ,blue and ,silver #ej ,in the possession of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham ,,vii4 ,portrait of ,thomas ,carlyle #fj ,in the ,corporation ,art ,galleries1 ,glasgow ,,viii4 ,in the ,channel #gj ,in the possession of ,mrs4 ,l4 ,knowles ,illustration ,i ,at the time when ,rossetti and his circle were foregathering chiefly at ,rossetti's house1 quiet ,chelsea scarcely knew how daily were associations added which will always cluster round her name4 ,whistler's share in those associations is very large1 and he has left in his paintings the memory of many a night1 as he returned beside the river4 ,before ,whistler painted it1 night was more opaque than it is now4 ,it had been viewed only through the window of tradition4 ,it was left for a man of the world coming out of an artificial ,london room to paint its stillness1 and also to show us that we ourselves had made night more beautiful1 with ghostly silver and gold2 and to tell us that the dark bridges that sweep into it do not interrupt--that we cannot interrupt1 the music of nature4 ,the figure of ,whistler emerges3 with his extreme concern as to his appearance1 his careful choice of clothes1 his hair so carefully arranged4 ,he had quite made up his mind as to the part he intended to play and the light in which he wished to be regarded4 ,he had a dual personality4 ,himself as he really was and the personality which he put forward as himself4 ,in a sense he never went anywhere unaccompanied2 he was followed and watched by another self that would perhaps have been happier at home4 ,tiring of this he would disappear from society for a time4 ,other men's ringlets fall into their places accidentally--so it might be with the young ,disraeli4 ,other men's clothes have seemed characteristic without any of this elaborate pose4 ,he chose his clothes with a view to their being characteristic1 which is rather different and less interesting than the fact of their becoming so because he1 ,whistler1 wore them4 ,other men are dandies1 with little conception of the grace of their part2 with ,whistler a supreme artist stepped into the question4 ,he designed himself4 ,nor had he the illusions of vanity1 but a groundwork of philosophy upon which every detail of his personal life was part of an elaborate and delicately designed structure1 his art the turret of it all1 from which he saw over the heads of others4 ,there is no contradiction between the dandy and his splendid art4 ,he lived as exquisitely and carefully as he painted4 ,literary culture1 merely1 in his case was not great perhaps1 yet he could be called one of the most cultured figures of his time4 ,in every direction he marked the path of his mind with fastidious borders4 ,and it is interesting that he should have painted the greatest portrait of ,carlyle1 who1 we will say1 represented in ,english literature ,goethe's philosophy of culture1 which if it has an echo in the plastic arts1 has it in the work of ,whistler4 ,in his ,heretics ,mr4 ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton condemned ,whistler for going in for the art of living--,i think he says the miserable art of living--,i have not seen the book for a long time1 but surely the fact that ,whistler was more than a private workman1 that his temperament had energy enough to turn from the ardours of his work to live this other part of life--indicates extraordinary vitality rather than any weakness4 ,whistler was never weak3 he came very early to an understanding of his limitations1 and well within those limitations took his stand4 ,because of this his art was perfect4 ,in it he declined to dissipate his energy in any but its natural way4 ,in that way he is as supreme as any master4 ,attacked from another point his whole art seems but a cobweb of beautiful ingenuity--sustained by evasions4 ,whistler1 one thinks1 would have been equally happy and meteorically successful in any profession2 one can imagine what an enlivening personality his would have been in a ,parliamentary debate1 and how fascinating4 ,any public would have suited him4 ,art was just an accident coming on the top of many other gifts4 ,it took possession of him as his chief gift1 but without it he was singularly well equipped to play a prominent part in the world4 ,as things happened all his other energy went to forward1 indirectly and directly1 the claims of art4 ,perhaps his methods of self-advancement were not so beautiful as his art1 and his wit was of a more robust character4 ,for this we should be very glad2 the world would have been too ready to overlook his delicate work--except that it had to feed his inordinate ambition4 ,at first it recognised his wit and then it recognised his art1 or did its level best to1 in answer to his repeated challenges4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,nocturne1 ,,st4 ,,mark',s1 ,,venice 7,in the possession of ,john ,j4 ,cowan1 ,esq47 ,this picture was first exhibited in the winter of #ahhf at the ,royal ,society of ,british ,artists4 ,the painter's election as ,president of the ,society taking place just after the hanging of the exhibition4 ,a newspaper criticism at the time was to the effect that the only note-worthy fact about the painting was the price1 #fcj1 just about twenty shillings to the square inch4 ,the figure of an investment1 we may add1 which was to improve beyond the wildest calculations4 ,it is easier to explain ,whistler's personality than his work4 ,in his lifetime most people had recognised all the force of his personality1 but it was not so with his art4 ,in this he is as a player of violin music1 or a composer after the fashion of the masters of music--his relationship to the subject which suggests the motif1 of course1 could not be quite so slight as theirs--but it was their standpoint that he adopted and so approached his art from another direction than the ordinary one4 ,to a great extent he established the unity of the arts4 ,without being a musical man1 through painting he divined the mission of music and passed from the one art almost into the other4 ,and the effort above everything else for self-expression was in its essence a musical one too1 as also the fact that he never allowed a line or brushmark to survive that was not as sensitively inspired--played we might almost say--as the touch of a player1 playing with great expression1 upon the keyboard of his piano4 ,this quality of touch--how much it counts for in the art of ,whistler--as it counts in music4 ,it is one of the essential things which we have to understand about his work1 to appreciate and enjoy it4 ,both painting and music are so different from writing in this1 that the thoughts of a painter and musician have to issue through their fingers1 they have to clothe with their own hands the offsprings of their fancy4 ,they cannot put this work out1 as the writer does1 by dictation to a type-writer4 ,it is not in the style he lays the ink that the poet finds the expression1 its thickness or its thinness bears no resemblance to his soul1 but the intimacies of a painter's genius are expressed in the actual substance of his paint and in the touch with which he lays it4 ,so in painting the mysterious virtue arises which among painters is called quality1 a certain beauty of surface resultant from the perfection of method4 ,and it is quality1 which ,whistler's work has superlatively1 in this it approaches the work of the old masters1 his method was more similar to the old traditions than to the systems current in the modern schools4 ,and part of the remote beauty1 the flavour of distinction which belongs to old canvases is simulated by ,whistler almost unconsciously4 ,mr4 ,mortimer ,mempes has put on record the painful care with which ,whistler printed his etchings4 ,the ,count de ,montesquieu1 whom ,whistler painted1 tells of the sixteen agonising sittings1 whilst by some fifty strokes a sitting the portrait advanced4 ,the finished work consisted of some hundred accents1 of which none was corrected or painted out4 ,from such glimpses of his working days we are enabled to appreciate that desire for perfection which was a ruling factor both in his life and work4 ,in art he deliberately limited himself for the sake of attaining in some one or two phases absolute perfection2 he strained away from his pictures everything but the quintessence of the vision and the mood4 ,he worked by gradually refining and refining upon an eager start1 or else by starting with great deliberation and proceeding very slowly with the brush balanced before every touch while he waited for it to receive its next inspiration4 ,so he was always working at the top of his powers4 ,those pleasant mornings in the studio in which the ,academy-picture painter works with pipe in mouth contentedly1 but more than half-mechanically1 upon some corner of his picture were not for him4 ,full inspiration came to him as he took up his brushes1 and the moment it flagged he laid them aside4 ,so that in his art there is not a brush mark or a line without feeling4 ,his inspiration1 however1 was not of the yeasty foaming order of which mad poets speak1 but spontaneity4 ,spontaneous action is inspired4 ,and this is why his work looks always as if it was done with grace and ease1 and why it seemed so careless to ,ruskin4 ,however1 such winged moments will not follow each other all day long1 and though they take flight very quickly1 work at this high pressure--with every touch as fresh as the first one--cannot be indefinitely prolonged4 ,whistler's friends regretted that he should suddenly leave his work for the sake of a garden party4 ,it is more likely that he turned to go to the garden party just when the right moment came for him to leave off working and so conserve the result1 for it is the tendency of the artist in inspired moments to waste his inspiration by allowing the work of one moment to undo what was done in the one before it4 ,,ii ,the wit of ,whistler was not like the wit1 let us say1 of ,sheridan1 but it was the result of intense personal convictions as to the lines along which art and life move together4 ,about one or two things in this world ,whistler was overflowing with wisdom1 and upon those things his conversation was always salt1 his sayings falling with a pretty and a startling sound4 ,he talked about things which were much in advance of his day4 ,his was not the wisdom of the past which always sounds impressive1 but the greater wisdom of the future1 of instincts not yet established upon the printed page4 ,by these he formed his convictions as he went1 referring all his experiences1 chiefly artistic ones1 back to his intelligence1 which as we know was an extraordinarily acute one4 ,other people's ideas1 old-fashioned ones1 coming into collision with the intensity of his own1 produced sparks on every occasion1 and this without over anxiety to be brilliant on ,whistler's part4 ,it is so with original minds4 ,there is a difference between artistic work and other sorts of work4 ,outside the arts1 in other professions1 what a man's personality is1 whilst it affects the way his work is accomplished1 does not alter the nature of that work4 ,immediately1 however1 the work becomes of such a nature that the word art can be inserted1 then the personal equation is before everything to be considered4 ,temperament meets us at every turn1 in the touch of brush to paper1 in the arrangement of the design1 in the subject chosen1 in the way of viewing that subject1 in the shape that subject takes4 ,also we can be sure that a picture suffers by every quality1 either of mere craftsmanship or surface finish1 that tends to obscure individuality of touch and feeling4 ,outside the arts every job must be finished1 if not by one man then by another4 ,a half-built motor-car means nothing to any one1 it cannot be regarded as a mode of personal expression1 but in art it is otherwise1 no one can finish a work for some one else1 and as ,whistler pointed out1 ,a work of art is finished from the beginning4 ,in such a saying ,whistler showed the depths from which his wit spilt over4 ,his intuitiveness in certain directions was almost uncanny1 taking the place of a profound scholarship1 and this saying is a case in point4 ,for however fragmentary a work of art is1 if it contains only a first impulse1 so far as the work there is sufficient to explain and communicate that impulse1 it is finished--finish can do no more4 ,and of course this is not to say that art should never pass such an early stage4 ,all this depends on what the artist has to say3 sometimes we have to value above everything the completeness1 the perfection of surface with which a picture has been brought to an end4 ,whistler's paradox sums up the fact that finish should be inextricably bound up with the method of working and the personal touch never be so played out that resort is made to that appearance of finish which can always be obtained by labour descending to a mechanical character4 ,this may sound rather technical1 but it is not so really4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,the ,,artist',s ,,studio 7,in the possession of ,douglas ,freshfield1 ,esq47 ,in this ,whistler stands in profile before his easel4 ,the picture belongs to ,mr4 ,douglas ,freshfield4 ,there is another version1 in a lower key and less finished1 in the ,lane gift at the ,city of ,dublin ,gallery1 from which this was perhaps painted4 ,here we may remark on all that is due to ,whistler1 as to ,manet1 for disturbing the dust in the ,academies1 at one time so thick that the great difference between art and mere craft seemed almost totally obscured4 ,,iii ,whistler's life is at present a skeleton of dates on which this incident occurred or that1 and at which the most notable of his pictures appeared4 ,and this must remain so until an authoritative biography of the painter has appeared4 ,with whom the authority rests was made the subject of a recent ,law ,case4 ,till such a work appears we can only deal with his art and with the ,whistler legend1 the impressions1 recorded and otherwise1 he left upon those who were brought into contact with him4#a ,these are strangely at variance--some having only met him cloaked from head to foot in the species of misunderstanding in which1 as he explained1 in surroundings of antagonism he had wrapped himself for protection2 others remembering him for his kindliness and his old-fashioned courtesy4 #a ,since going to press1 ,the ,life of ,whistler1 by ,e4 ,r4 and ,j4 ,pennell has appeared4 ,permitting himself sufficient popularity with a few to be called ,jimmy1 ,whistler's full name was ,james ,abbot ,mc,neill ,whistler1 and the initials gradually twisted themselves into that strange arabesque with a wavy tail which he called a butterfly and with which he signed his pictures and his letters4 ,born on #aath ,july #ahcd at ,lowell1 ,massachusetts1 he was the descendant of an ,irish branch of an old ,english family1 and in his seventeenth year he entered the ,west ,point ,military ,academy1 where after making his first etchings on the margins of the map which he should have been engraving1 he decided to devote his life to art4 ,he was twenty when he left ,america and he never returned to it1 so that as far as ,america is concerned infancy can be pleaded4 ,america has since bought more than her share of the fruits of his genius1 finding in this open-handed way charming expression for her envy4 ,he went to ,paris to study art1 where he was gay1 and attracted attention to himself by the enjoyable way in which he spent his time4 ,it was not until he was twenty-five that he arrived in ,london1 and a little later moving to ,chelsea commenced work in earnest4 ,a charming picture suggests itself of the painter escorting his aged mother every ,sunday morning to the door of ,chelsea old church1 as was his habit1 bowing to her as she enters and hastening back to the studio to be witty with his ,sunday friends4 ,whistler's first important picture1 ,at the ,piano1 issued from ,chelsea4 ,it was hung in the ,academy in #ahfj and was bought by a member of the ,academy4 ,he followed the next year with ,la ,mre ,gerard1 which belongs to ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,he sent a picture called ,the ,white ,girl1 to the ,salon of #ahfc4 ,it was1 however1 rejected4 ,it was then hung at the collection called the ,salon des ,refuss1 an exhibition held as a protest against the ,academic prejudices which still marked the ,salon4 ,there it met with an enthusiastic reception which set ,whistler off on his career of defiance4 ,in #ahfe the painter went to ,valparaiso for a visit1 from which resulted the beautiful ,valparaiso nocturnes4 ,back again in ,chelsea1 he devoted himself to the river there4 ,he was then living in a house in ,lindsay ,row4 ,at this time he was greatly affected by ,japanese art1 and one or two pictures show curious attempts to adapt scenes of the life of the ,west to the ,eastern conventions4 ,this phase of his art was beautiful1 but he passed it on the way to work of greater sincerity1 and more clearly the outcome of his own vision4 ,in #ahgd the first exhibition of ,whistler's work was held at a ,gallery in ,pall ,mall1 containing among other things ,the ,painter's ,mother1 ,thomas ,carlyle1 and ,miss ,alexander4 ,it is interesting that the ,piano ,picture1 painted just as he emerged from his studentship1 is of the flower of his art2 he did things afterwards of great significance1 and did them quite differently1 but the ,piano ,picture does not seem a first work preparing his art for future perfection1 it is so perfect in itself4 ,and here perhaps we may observe another fact in connection with ,whistler1 that in the last days of his life he painted with the same genius for the beautiful as at the beginning2 none of that deterioration had set in1 which so often comes in the wake of flattery and belated public esteem4 ,he was never betrayed by success into over1 or too rapid1 production4 ,he never succumbed to the delight of anticipating a cheque by every post instead of bills4 ,he found no difficulty in declining the most tempting offers4 ,well1 work that is held thus sacred by its own creator1 should tempt people to search for all that made it seem so valuable to him4 ,whistler had an intense dislike of parting with his work4 ,when a picture was bought from him he was like a man selling his child4 ,sometimes he would see somewhere a picture he had painted1 he would borrow it to add to or improve it1 but he would keep it and live with it and gradually forget all about its possessor4 ,whatever qualms attacked his conscience for this procrastination1 it was no part of his genius to confess1 instead he would say ,for years1 this dear person has had the privilege of living with that masterpiece--what more do they want8 ,at ,whistler's death1 however1 it was found that the circumstances under which a picture had at any time been borrowed were methodically entered up1 with minute directions as to the return of one or two pictures1 borrowed thus1 that were in his studio when he died4 ,in ,chelsea1 ,rossetti and ,whistler were good friends1 they shared a love of blue china1 in fact inventing the modern taste for certain kinds1 especially for what they called ,long ,elizas1 a specimen upon which slim figures are painted1--,lange leises--tall damsels--as they were called by the ,dutch4 ,one supposes that it is through ,rossetti that he came into contact with ,swinburne1 who was inspired to write the poem called ,before the ,mirror1 by ,whistler's picture ,the ,white ,girl1 and of which some of the verses were printed after the title in the catalogue of the ,royal ,academy ,exhibition4 ,the first verse in itself suggests a scheme of white3-- ,white rose in red rose-garden ,is not so white2 ,snowdrops that plead for pardon ,and pine for fright ,because the hard ,east blows ,over their maiden rows ,grow not as this face grows from pale to bright4 ,the poem was printed on gilded paper on the frame2 this was however removed on the picture going to the ,academy1 and in the catalogue the two following verses were printed after the title3-- ,come snow1 come wind or thunder ,high up in air1 ,i watch my face1 and wonder ,at my bright hair2 ,nought else exalts or grieves ,the rose at heart1 that heaves ,with love of her own leaves and lips that pair4 ,i cannot tell what pleasure ,or what pains were2 ,what pale new loves and treasures ,new years will bear3 ,what beam will fall1 what shower1 ,what grief or joy for dower2 ,but one thing knows the flower2 the flower is fair4 ,later on1 ,swinburne did not allow the ,ten o'clock lecture to go unchallenged1 and he subjects its glittering rhetoric to a not unkind but cold analysis which1 however1 ,whistler has the grace to print with marginal reflections in ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies1 the book which contains the paradoxes which reflect so well his powers as a thinker4 ,it is doubtful whether ,whistler in kinder circumstances would have produced his brilliant theories4 ,the irritation caused by misconception1 the necessity of justifying even his limitations to a world which was apparently prepared to consider nothing else about him at one time--these were the wine-press of his eloquence4 ,he disliked the rle of teacher and apologised for it at the beginning of his ,ten o'clock1 and when1 in later life1 following the fashion1 he started a school1 he relied upon the example of his own methods of setting the palette rather than upon precept1 with a little banter to keep good humour in his class-room4 ,a young lady protested ,i am sure that ,i am painting what ,i see4 ,yes6 answered her master1 but the shock will come when you see what you are painting4 ,a student at the short-lived ,acadmie-,whistler has written that merely attempting to initiate them into some purely technical matters of art1 he succeeded--almost without his or their volition--in transforming their ways of seeing6 ,not alone in a refining of the actual physical sight of things1 not only in a quickening of the desire for a choicer1 rarer vision of the world about them1 but in opening the door to a more intimate sympathy with the masters of the past4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,portrait ,,of ,,my ,,mother 7,in the ,luxembourg ,galleries1 ,paris7 ,this was first exhibited in the ,royal ,academy in #ahgb4 ,for many years it remained in the painter's possession4 ,it left this country to become the property of the ,french ,government in the ,luxembourg at the sum of #abj4 ,in ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies ,whistler writes of the picture as an ,arrangement in ,grey and ,black4 ,to me1 he adds1 it is interesting as a picture of my mother2 but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait8 ,the thing that strikes one in reading ,the ,gentle ,art is how badly those who entered into combat with its author came off in the end1 some of them in what they consider their witty replies committing suicide so far as their reputation as authorities on art went4 ,notable is the case of the critic of ,the ,times1 replying ,i ought to remember your penning1 like your painting1 belongs to the region of chaff4 ,we have indicated the source of ,whistler's success as a wit--at that source we find the reason why he always scored when talking about painting4 ,he is playing something more than a game of repartee4 ,his best replies are crystallised from his inner knowledge4 ,in them we get bit by bit the revelation which he had received as a genius in his craft4 ,it was the force of his personality that obtained for ,whistler's evasive art such recognition in his lifetime as in the natural course only falls to fine painters of the obvious1 whom every one delights to honour4 ,he had said that art is for artists1 and it is true that the perfection of his own art is the pleasure of those who study it4 ,it reached heights of lyrical expression where life in completeness has not yet been represented in painting2 reached them perhaps because so lightly freighted with elementary human feeling4 ,his work so often leaves us cold1 and we turn seeking for art mixed further with the fire of life and alight with everyday desire4 ,but nature showed many things to this her appreciator--,i write1 her intimate friend4 ,as a moth which goes out from the artificial atmosphere of a ,london room into the blue night1 ,i think of the painter of the nocturnes--yet always as a lover of nature1 never more so than when his subject is the sea4 ,for he has a greater consciousness of the salt wet air than any other sea painter1 of the veil behind which all ships are sailing and through which the waves break1 the atmosphere which descends so mystically and invisibly and yet which if not accounted for in a canvas leaves ships with their sails set in a vacuum and the waves as if they were crested with candle-grease4 ,is it not absence of this atmosphere which has tortured us on so many occasions when with everything quite real a picture has not brought us pleasure4 ,pleasure comes to us always with reality in art1 and the end of art is realism4 ,all is real even around a mystic1 though his thoughts are out of our sight4 ,whistler was not a mystic but above everything he wished to suggest the atmosphere which is invisible except for its visible effect1 and ,i cannot help thinking his vision essentially abstract4 ,he did not paint subject pictures4 ,to make our meaning quite clear1 let us say such pictures as ,frith's1 or better still1 as ,hogarth's in which we have the extreme4 ,the art of ,hogarth moved upon a plane lower down1 but there it had a strength unknown to ,whistler1 a careless and lavish inspiration of life itself4 ,he had to find speech for all sorts of things in his art1 beauty was but one of these1 creeping in less as a deliberate aim than as the accident of a nature artistic4 ,whistler in painting desired to express nothing but his sense of beauty4 ,for the rest of his nature1 he found expression altogether outside his art in enthusiasm for life itself1 its combats1 difficulties1 and its opportunities for saying brilliant things at dinner4 ,his dinner conversation1 ,i have been told1 was like the abstract methods of his etching1 always cryptic1 full of suggestion1--wonderful conversation1 full of short ejaculations which carried your imagination from one point to another with hints that seemed to throw open doorways into passages of thought leading right behind things4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,lillie ,,in ,,our ,,alley 7,in the possession of ,john ,j4 ,cowan1 ,esq47 ,this study in brown and gold was made about the time 7#ahfe7 when the ,little ,rose of ,lyme ,regis was painted1 one of the most beautiful portraits of an ,english child4 ,the latter picture unfortunately left these shores and is now in the ,boston ,museum1 ,u4,s4,a4 ,he had a remarkable regard for purity of speech1 as became the painter of such spiritual types of womanhood4 ,it would seem that women liked him1 and readily apprehended in his art his sensitive view of life4 ,at table he drank but little and was a slender eater4 ,when alone he would sometimes forget all about his meals1 or eat scarcely anything2 in later years1 feeling the necessity of taking care of himself he would guard against his indifference by always seeking companionship when away from his house4 ,his nervous disposition forced him to content himself with little sleep1 his active brain keeping him awake conceiving witticisms and planning the battle for the morrow4 ,,iv ,it would be incomplete in any memoir of ,whistler to omit the most thrilling battle of his life4 ,to all adventurers there comes at last the event which knocks all their venturousness out of them or is the beginning of a triumphant way4 ,whistler had been before the footlights a long time1 but it was his contact with ,professor ,ruskin which brought him into the full lime-light1 which he was so much prepared to enjoy4 ,ruskin paid him the only tribute strength can pay to strength when it is not on the same side--with a prophetic instinct that as regards picture exhibitions ,whistler's art was the sign of a coming1 and licentious1 freedom from the old rules of the game4 ,he saw in ,whistler's work the end of old fair things1 the laws of those old things all set aside4 ,in reading the so well-known criticism of ,whistler one has a feeling that after all ,ruskin has only half expressed his feelings in it--however it resulted in the famous libel action4 ,whistler received one farthing damages1 which sum he afterwards magnanimously returned to his eminent critic1 as his contribution towards the subscription set on foot to pay ,ruskin's legal expenses4 ,ruskin's criticism was as follows3-- ,for ,mr4 ,whistler's own sake1 no less than for the protection of the purchaser1 ,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 imposture4 ,i have seen1 and heard much of cockney impudence before now1 but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face4 ,the case came on in the ,court of ,exchequer ,division before ,baron ,huddleston on ,november #ae1 #ahgh1 ,whistler claiming #ajjj damages4 ,the labours of two days1 then1 is that for which you ask two hundred guineas6 asked the ,attorney-,general representing ,ruskin4 ,no1 replied ,whistler1 ,i ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime4 ,do you think now that you could make me see the beauty of that picture8 asked the ,attorney-,general4 ,no6 he replied4 ,do you know ,i fear it would be as hopeless as for the musician to pour his notes into the ear of a deaf man4 ,in resuming the ,attorney-,general said3 ,let them examine the nocturne in blue and silver1 said to represent ,battersea ,bridge4 ,what was that structure in the middle8 ,was it a telescope or a fire-escape8 ,was it like ,battersea ,bridge8 ,what were the figures at the top of the bridge8 ,and if they were horses and carts1 how in the name of fortune were they to get off8 ,mr4 ,w4 ,p4 ,frith1 ,r4,a41 was examined and in his evidence said that in his opinion ,mr4 ,whistler's pictures were not serious works of art4 ,in the margin of the account of the trial in ,the ,gentle ,art ,whistler quotes from that painter's ,it was just a toss up whether ,i became an artist or an auctioneer1 and adds1 ,he must have tossed up4 ,there was a time when policemen had to keep the crowd away from ,frith's ,margate ,sands4 ,there was a time when ,whistler's pictures were hissed when they were put on the easel at ,christie's8 ,if the attitude towards these so different kinds of art is changed1 it is the resolution ,whistler showed in life as well as in his art that changed it4 ,and have we not in the above interchange of points of view at the court the whole vexed question--the issue around which the battle of ,whistler's life always raged8 ,whistler explained to the court that his whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour4 ,he tried to dispel the illusion that the painter's craft forms itself upon the desire to communicate a story4 ,it may be so with the literary craft1 but there is no life in the drawing or painting that is not inspired by the delight of the artist in the mere outside of things4 ,where there is the expression of that delight1 there may be the expression of much beside1 of the spiritual meanings behind all beauty--though ,whistler did not take this flight in his reply4 ,he himself tried to limit the meaning of art almost as narrowly as ,ruskin4 ,he had this advantage over ,ruskin1 that whatever he said about painting was from the inside knowledge of his genius in painting4 ,ruskin's genius was always approaching that subject from the outside4 ,we could not on any account dispense with what was said at any time by either of them4 ,it was impossible for them to see each other except as enemies across a wide gulf1 all speech with each other drowned by the rapids of misunderstanding4 ,the gulf is nearly bridged4 ,in viewing art in its relation to life no one wrote more profoundly than ,ruskin1 but he failed in knowledge of the beautiful and inner mysterious delights of the craft of painting4 ,whilst exalting the mission of painting1 he degraded its craft1 he seemed to fail in appreciation of the fact that at its highest this is as mystical as inspired--and as unaccountable as the craft in ,shelley's lyrics4 ,the number of rules he laid down1 the gospels he preached upon them reveal always the irritating scholiast and pedant4 ,how eloquently ,whistler expresses his irritation in the ,ten o'clock lecture6 ,in his account of the trial in ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies1 ,whistler fills the margin with quotations from ,ruskin so dexterously opposed to the matter in hand as seemingly to discredit for ever ,ruskin's writings upon art and the mode of thought therein4 ,but at the bidding of ,whistler1 and those who boast his opinions second hand1 we cannot abjure all this order of thought4 ,one passage which ,whistler quotes3 ,vulgarity1 dulness1 or impiety will indeed always express themselves throughout1 in brown and grey as in ,rembrandt is not without its bearing on his own art--which has since then quite altered the meaning of the word grey4 ,and despite the perhaps unfortunate naming of ,rembrandt one divines that ,ruskin is here speaking in the light of the highest intuitive knowledge4 ,it must be remembered that in prose1 which may accept its motif from anything1 from art if it likes1 ,ruskin could sometimes lose himself as completely as ,whistler often did in the beauty of his own art4 ,and with the waters of beauty closing over their heads1 one was as deaf and blind as the other4 ,that trial was ,ruskin's ,waterloo4 ,if there is one thing that would make me doubt that ,whistler was a great man1 it is the fact that he never had a ,waterloo1 but perhaps that is reserved for those who have been successful right from the beginning4 ,the light air with which ,whistler carried his own early troubles is misleading as to their extent4 ,without the thread of coarser stuff that crossed his otherwise over-refined nature some such sadness of fate might have awaited him as awaited ,meryon1 the ,french etcher1 for possessing motives too far in advance of those accepted by his time4 ,for really at first no one hardly seemed to have understood the delicate order of things that ,whistler was trying to do1 especially in his later etchings1 in which everything is a symbol counting upon our imagination2 everything a pleasure to its creator and nothing a labour2 every line one of nervous impulse1 the whole etching an inspiration of such impulsive threads4 ,in what loneliness he must have possessed his abnormal delicacy of perception4 ,he hugged to himself the delusion that a knowledge of his craft enabled artists to understand him--but it is common for artists of abundant gifts not to have the necessary refinement of sense1 and after all artists are not so numerous that these appreciators will be many4 ,but in the wide world outside the studios there are many people thus delicately attuned1 their numbers to be increased when ,whistler in his subtlety of vision is less ahead of the world in point of evolution4 ,he brought recognition to himself before his time by strident challenges1 aggressive at every point and scornful--as they could not have been had the real nature of his superiority dawned on him at the first4 ,in the first ,thames etchings he has not received his revelation3 they do not show his hand quite so conscientiously1 nervously1 awaiting its inspiration for every movement4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,nocturne1 ,,blue ,,and ,,silver 7,in the possession of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham7 ,painted at ,westminster1 looking towards ,lambeth4 ,on the back of the picture is a card bearing the artist's signature and the butterfly1 with title ,westminster1 ,blue and ,silver1 ,j4 ,mc,neill ,whistler1 #b ,lindsay ,houses1 ,old ,chelsea4 ,this places the date of its execution about #ahff4 ,nothing can make us realise the great significance of the ,whistler influence in art more than the contrast between the esteem in which his etchings are now held and the early criticisms of them which he collected and scornfully embodied in his book4 ,these are indeed the most depressing reading--and ,whistler's quaint termination to those pages1 they roar all like bears1 does very aptly express the feeling of desolation that must overcome any one who appreciates the spirit of his etchings4 ,when praise is forthcoming it is only for the early etchings at the expense of those later ones in which he conceived such an inspired use of the needle4 ,by the criticisms in this book we know the exhausting struggle and how right it was that a life1 the first half of which had been spent thus1 should have no ,waterloo1 but end with rest--and with honour1 accorded to this ,merlin1 so evidently great1 if only a few knew why4 ,it was #ahgh1 the year of the ,ruskin trial1 that he started working in lithography as a medium1 being initiated into the technicalities by ,mr4 ,thomas ,way4 ,in the ,fair ,women ,exhibition held by ,the ,international ,society1 which is open whilst ,i write1 there are some lithographs by ,whistler1 which suggest purity of type and the charm of beautiful womanhood in a manner that puts to flight the claims of many a famous canvas in the gallery4 ,it is the most delicate of all mediums2 it suited his touch and the sensitive order of his perceptions4 ,after the ,ruskin case ,whistler left ,london for ,venice for about a year2 upon his return he exhibited at the ,fine ,art ,society the first series of ,venice pastels1 and a little later at the same gallery fifty-three pastels of ,venice4 ,he also held exhibitions at the ,dowdeswell ,gallery in #ahhc1 ,etchings in #ahhd in ,notes1 ,harmonies1 and ,nocturnes1 in #ahhf all the time still continuing to exhibit at the ,grosvenor ,gallery some of his most famous portraits1 nocturnes1 and marines4 ,v ,on #cast ,december #ahhd the following amusing letter appeared in ,the ,world1 signed with the well-known butterfly4 ,atlas1 look at this6 ,it has been culled from the ,plumber and ,decorator1 of all insidious prints1 and forwarded to me by the untiring people who daily supply me with the thinkings of my critics4 ,read1 ,atlas1 and let me execute myself4 ',the ,peacock drawing-room of a well-to-do shipowner1 of ,liverpool1 at ,prince's ,gate1 ,london1 is hand painted1 representing the noble bird with wings expanded1 painted by an ,associate of the ,royal ,academy1 at a cost of #gjjj1 and fortunate in claiming his daughter as his bride1 and is one of the finest specimens of high art in decoration in the kingdom4 ,the mansion is of modern construction4' ,he is not guilty1 this honest ,associate6 ,it was ,i1 ,atlas1 who did this thing--alone ,i did it--,i 'hand painted' this room in the 'mansion of modern construction4' ,woe is me6 ,i secreted1 in the provincial shipowner's home1 the 'noble bird with wings expanded'--,i perpetrated in harmless obscurity1 'the finest specimen of high-art decoration'--and the ,academy is without stain in the art of its member4 ,also the immaculate character of that ,royal body has been falsely impugned by this wicked ,plumber6 ,mark these things1 ,atlas1 that justice may be done1 the innocent spared1 and history cleanly written4 ,whistler's picture ,la ,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine had been hung by ,mr4 ,f4 ,r4 ,leyland in his mansion at ,prince's ,gate1 and ,whistler could not reconcile himself to its appearance against the valuable ,spanish leather on the walls4 ,he was to correct this by treating a little of the wall2 meanwhile ,mr4 ,leyland went down into the country4 ,when he returned it was to find that ,whistler was painting over the whole of the room4 ,much money had already been spent on the original leather scheme1 and ,whistler had quickly effaced all appearance of its intrinsic worth1 but he was in the rapid process of creating the famous ,peacock ,room4 ,dissension took place as to terms under the circumstances1 and ,whistler finished the room with a panel of two peacocks fighting1 emblematic of the quarrel4 ,mr4 ,leyland was considered one of the most discriminating patrons of his time4 ,just previous to the above events the interior of the house had been reconstructed and decorated in accordance with designs by ,norman ,shaw and ,jekyll4 ,the leather had been the latter architect's scheme for the room where the ,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine was hung4 ,the walls were fitted with shelves designed for the display of blue china4 ,whistler painted all the window shutters with gold peacocks on a blue ground1 and a panel at the end of the room1 which had been reserved for a picture commissioned from him2 into this panel he put the fighting peacocks1 whose eyes were real jewels1 the one a ruby and the other a diamond4 ,it was found possible to move all the decoration without injury and some time after the original owner's death this was done1 the purchaser taking it to ,america4 ,before it left ,england it was set up temporarily for the purpose of its exhibition at ,messrs4 ,obach's ,gallery4 ,the picture ,the ,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine1 the key-note1 was however missing from the scheme1 having found another purchaser4 ,the room was the finest example of a less known side of ,whistler's art4 ,his designs sprung straight from himself1 they had no connection with any ,european tradition4 ,he accepted in their entirety the conventions1 the arrangements and devices of the ,japanese designers4 ,yet his designs could not have been created by any of the great artists of ,japan4 ,there is too much vitality about them1 and these peacocks which belong to a pattern and are conventionalised to the last degree1 have a more startling reality than any peacock painted in a modern picture4 ,no one knows how ,whistler came to know so much about peacocks4 ,a duffer can paint the bird until he comes to the neck--and then we have to turn to photographs for the reality that gives us pleasure1 it eludes all modern genius4 ,so for the most part1 fortunately1 peacocks are left severely alone4 ,the dancing of the premire danseuse at the ,empire1 perfected with ardent years of study1 is a less recondite theme of movement than a peacock raising its head4 ,it is a delight1 to all those who love it1 beside which all dancing pales1 more gracious and stately in movement than the accumulated grace of many women4 ,that is how it must always seem to those who really know it4 ,whistler arrived at perfect understanding by the instinctive route on which he never went astray4 ,after the peacock-room incident the wildest legends were afloat about the whole matter1 one of them that the architect had been driven mad by the sight of what had happened to his leather1 and that later he was found at home painting peacocks blue and gold all over the floor4 ,,vi ,in #ahhe ,whistler's lecture on art was given in ,london1 ,oxford1 and ,cambridge2 to suit the convenience of ,londoners who liked to linger over dinner1 he fixed the hour of delivery rather later than usual4 ,this was the famous ,ten o'clock lecture--so vague and shadowy in its facts at the beginning1 so brilliant at the end1 and dispelling the sthetic fog in which the sthetes elected to dwell4 ,it is significant of the slight heed given to ,whistler's real beliefs that characteristics of his appearance were at one time satirised in ,w4 ,s4 ,gilbert's ,bunthorne1 confusing him as was common with the sthetic craze4 ,in ,the ,ten o'clock his scorn is eloquent enough of the weird cult in which1 as he says1 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 ,graces6 ,but for all that the principles which governed in ,l'art nouveau which followed and may be said to be a part of the movement1 are prominent in those two arrangements of his own1 the portrait of ,carlyle and the portrait of his ,mother4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,portrait ,,of ,,thomas ,,carlyle 7,in the ,corporation ,art ,galleries1 ,glasgow7 ,this portrait is in the possession of the ,glasgow ,corporation1 the only public body in these islands whose appreciation of the painter was not belated4 ,in spite of protests1 to their credit the purchase was made1 and direct from the artist for #ajjj4 ,the picture was first seen at the artist's exhibition in #ahgd1 and was painted in the same period as the ,portrait of ,my ,mother4 ,no doubt the fame of an objet d'art can last for ever with connoisseurs1 if rare enough in itself and rare in the skill displayed1 and many a painting is destined to live on these same grounds4 ,but there is a destiny too for the spirit of a picture of which all this valuable perfection is but the outward shrine4 ,where human experience rises to intensity of expression in art it is born into life anew and less perishably4 ,it is thus that the picture of ,whistler's ,mother is by common consent enthroned above the level of criticism1 what we say for and against it being only as water lapping at the foot of a cliff4 ,incorporate with the traditions of a race it is acknowledged a classic1 and of a classic one may speak as one does of life1 with freedom as to how it affects oneself4 ,i have challenged the effect of this picture upon myself4 ,the trail of the age seems over it1 the self-consciousness which is like a blight upon modern arts and crafts4 ,instead of its figure being painted in some such accidental contact with its environment as would naturally occur1 we have an arrangement4 ,in rearranging things thus for itself1 art is at least one remove farther away from things as they are1 and as things as they are reflect the influences that brought them together1 art must come closer to life by the interpretation of this reflection than by its alteration4 ,there must be an arrangement in every picture1 but the improbability of this one1 outside of a studio1 spoils the picture for me4 ,the figure is placed in position as we should place a piano4 ,it is not very likely that a lady would sit at right angles to the wall with no fire in front of her1 no work-table1 no books4 ,these thoughts rise unbidden when ,i look at the picture--but ,whistler begs us in a printed letter to consider it as an arrangement4 ,incidentally1 he says it is interesting to him as a portrait of his mother4 ,yet he misunderstood when he thought the artist's rights extended beyond his creations to the attitude in which one should approach them1 and the picture is famous for the beautiful rendering of the lady and to us only incidentally interesting as an arrangement4 ,one does not escape the music of the outline of the figure in the picture1 the balance of all parts of the design1 the refreshing convention in comparison with other conventions4 ,only conventions perhaps are best left for portraits where the traditional environment connected with the high social status or office of the sitter1 supplants in our imagination the more everyday aspect of their life4 ,the unnaturalness of the photographer's art may require concessions from every one2 though even here as in painting1 the art which conceals art must save the situation2 and ,whistler managed this gracefully enough in all his other portraits4 ,it was ,gainsborough who was haunted by the smile of a woman4 ,it is ,whistler who represents her movement as she turns into the room1 his art seeming to show a consciousness that the body that turns thus1 the grace of the clothes1 are but a temporary habitation of swiftly passing spirit4 ,in his early piano picture the trembling white dress of the child surprises him into the representation of stuff itself2 later his art passes to an almost ecstatic obliviousness to the quality of things themselves and he surrenders the representation of their surface qualities for a fluid1 musical1 all-embracing quality of paint in which the artist can render his theme as a virtuoso1 ever striving to overtake some almost impossible inflection of tone4 ,and as his art becomes thus abstract1 as it assumes such a mission as music1 he finds musical terms for the names of his pictures to give the public the clue4 ,his water-colours are executed with an extremely pleasant touch of brush to paper in which he himself delighted1 and here1 as also in the case of etching1 he made the most of the particular qualities of the medium and as ever was careful not to out-step the limitations which an appreciation of those qualities imposed4 ,they do not do much more than register the incident of colour which interested him in any particular scene4 ,it was to register his pleasure in that1 rather than to make a full record of surrounding country that he made his water-colours1 and the spectator will understand them only by the responsiveness of his imagination to artistic suggestion4 ,by the process of what is termed in the language of art suggestion 7that is1 interpretation by thoughtful1 economical1 and expressive touches instead of a photographic imitation7 all merely mechanical labour is eliminated and there is a consequent spiritualising of the whole method by which the artist makes his communication to our imagination4 ,he infers that we have advanced beyond an understanding merely of the capital letters of art1 and that this autographic handling of the brush or etching needle is as intelligible to us as the characteristic penmanship of our friends and as charming4 ,,vii ,the second great public event in ,whistler's career was his election in #ahhf to the ,presidency of the ,society of ,british ,artists in ,suffolk ,street1 which made exciting history at the time4 ,whistler was just one of those people who want everything in the world arranged after some secret pattern of their own4 ,they make the best reformers4 ,but what could be a more strange spectacle than the revolutionary ,whistler in the presidential chair of the staidest of art societies8 ,the desire for advertisement overcoming the scruples of older members1 ,whistler's election as a member took place just before their winter exhibition in #ahhd4 ,the ,times of the #crd of ,december #ahhd recorded the fact that artistic society was startled by the news that this most wayward of painters had found a home among the men of ,suffolk ,street--of all people in the world4 ,his humour did not forsake him in this new environment4 ,mr4 ,horseley1 ,r4,a41 lecturing before the ,church ,congress1 attacked the nude models1 especially and in particular at the ,royal ,academy ,schools4 ,shortly after this1 in sending a pastel of a nude to the ,society of ,british ,artists1 ,whistler attached the words ,horseley soit qui mal y pense1 and was only prevailed upon to remove them by the fear of older members that the attack upon an ,academician might lead up to a libel case with the ,royal ,academy4 ,the ,royal ,academy students at the time used to drape the legs of the chairs and tables when ,mr4 ,horseley visited the schools4 ,that was in #ahhe4 ,it was the following year that ,whistler was elected ,president of the ,society for which he got a ,royal ,charter1 and to which by his methods--as ,president--he brought fame for ever as the ,r4,b4,a4 ,many of the electors who had supported his membership had concluded that he was not likely to take much part in the workings of the ,society4 ,however1 he came to the meetings and to their surprise took an interest in the proceedings1 proffering advice1 intruding new ideas1 not often welcomed by the older artists4 ,he invited some of the members to one of his famous ,sunday breakfasts at his studio in ,tite ,street1 and regaled them with his theories of art4 ,they were influenced by his personality and the character of the elections altered1 men of the newer movements were elected1 and they soon formed a small but very energetic and loyal group around ,whistler1 finally acquiring sufficient power to elect him as we have shown into the ,president's chair4 ,after that the meetings of the ,society were exhilarating in the extreme1 and ,whistler talked with extreme brilliance to the members1 and somehow got his way until their ,gallery was hung with one line of pictures upon a carefully chosen background4 ,but the opposition became too strong from members who wished to run the exhibition on its old lines1 and certainly the funds were suffering from these very high ideals4 ,his opponents brought up the maimed1 the halt1 and the blind1 all except corpses1 don't you know6 as ,whistler put it1 the oldest members1 the fact of whose membership had up to that time lingered only perhaps in their own memory1 and thus effected his out-voting at the next election4 ,whistler congratulated them1 for1 as he explained1 no longer was the right man in the wrong place4 ,you see1 he said1 referring to the group of his followers who resigned with him1 the ',artists' have come out and the ',british' remain4 ,it was the first time in ,england that pictures had been so artistically arranged4 ,no pictures were badly hung1 no member had anything to complain of as far as that went4 ,but they were disturbed at the loss of probable sales which they calculated the empty spaces on the walls might be taken to signify4 ,on the night of the election which ended the ,whistler dynasty there was great excitement1 and the younger members let off steam by playing in the passages during the counting of the votes4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,in ,,the ,,channel 7,in the possession of ,mrs4 ,l4 ,knowles7 ,in this impression of grey sea-weather we have the colour equivalent of that expressive economy which ,whistler practised with his line2 and the butterfly touch--like a butterfly alighting4 ,the ,society had come into existence with aims of its own4 ,an order of art was represented which had to be represented somewhere4 ,a great amount of capable work for which the ,academy had not room was on view here1 representative of the everyday activity of ,london studio life4 ,it was amusing to think of ,whistler as the ,president of this ,society as it was constituted in those days--and absurd4 ,he could have nothing in common with its homely aims4 ,but it was an advertisement for the ,society and for him1 he probably did not share the illusions of his followers that he was in the right place4 ,when in after years the leaders of the modern movement formed themselves into the ,international ,society1 in #ahih1 through the organisation of ,mr4 ,francis ,howard1 it was inevitable and natural that ,whistler should be the ,president1 but at the ,british ,artists it was simply a case of cuckoo and the sparrow's nest4 ,with his success1 the original element of the ,society must have gone elsewhere leaving him in possession of their building4 ,it was fitting that ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds should be the ,president of an ,academy whose theories he embraced but exposited with greater genius4 ,but ,whistler's theories had no relation whatever to the body of which he was thus made the head1 and he did not surpass in everything as ,sir ,joshua2 the significance of his genius resting rather with the fact that it is epochal4 ,however1 as all this affair happened just at the time when paradox was coming into vogue1 there was that much only about it that was fitting4 ,after these events ,whistler1 who was invited on to the ,jury of the ,new ,salon then forming1 left for ,paris4 ,,viii ,in #ahib the painter returned and held an exhibition at the ,goupil ,gallery1 and from the date of this exhibition everything altered in his favour4 ,for years he had found it impossible to sell his pictures except to a circle of wealthy patrons4 ,the prejudice excited against his work after the issue with ,ruskin had closed all other markets for him4 ,he had remained the impudent coxcomb in so many people's minds1 and his challenge to the omnipotence of ,ruskin had not been forgiven him4 ,a ban was upon his works4 ,he said that for nearly twenty years the ,ruskin case affected his sales4 ,but fame he desired more ardently1 and this he had1--like ,prometheus1--and of a kind that would keep till the day came when it could be changed for a quantity of money4 ,when the ,goupil show was open he found this day was already upon him1 and the ,americans coming over1 began to buy his works1 and early acquaintances who had acquired them at small prices1 themselves sold out1 of course much too soon4 ,that was the time when a purchase for the nation should have been made4 ,later he toured through ,france and ,brittany until he settled again in ,paris in the ,rue de ,bac1 having married ,mrs4 ,e4 ,w4 ,godwin1 the widow of the eminent architect1 builder of the ,white ,house in ,tite ,street1 ,chelsea1 which had been ,whistler's former home4 ,in the old days in the ,white ,house he had furnished one or two rooms elaborately1 and others1 perhaps for lack of funds to make them perfect1 hardly at all4 ,it was then he collected the blue china with ,rossetti as a friendly rival4 ,this was the house in which he instituted his famous ,sunday breakfasts1 and to which everybody used to come who was distinguished4 ,the breakfast-time was twelve o'clock1 cook permitting4 ,on one occasion1 through some untoward circumstances in the kitchen1 it was not placed upon the table until nearly three4 ,mr4 ,henry ,james was there that day1 and has been heard to speak of it since1 and how he took a walk to bring him nearer breakfast-time4 ,but all this had to be given up after the expenses of the ,ruskin ,trial1 and the blue china was knocked down4 ,whistler wrote a characteristic letter to ,the ,world in #ahhc upon the alterations then being made in the ,white ,house by his successor1 one of ,messieurs les ,ennemis a critic4 ,in those days his wit and vivacity had already made him a host of acquaintances1 and distinguished men were glad to count him as one among themselves1--whilst reserving their opinion on his painting4 ,but now things were very different1 and he was referred to as the ,master--and the house in the ,rue de ,bac thoroughly furnished1 partly from designs made by his gifted wife4 ,he came to ,england in #ahie and painted at ,lyme ,regis1 painting ,the ,little ,rose of ,lyme ,regis--which shows that his art is purely ,english--though he had said that one might as well talk of ,english ,mathematics as of ,english ,art4 ,for in this little girl's face something there is that is only found in ,english ,art4 ,she descends directly from the beautiful tradition of ,walker and ,sir ,john ,millais4 ,in ,december he exhibited a collection of lithographs at the ,fine ,art ,society's ,gallery4 ,he was again in ,london in #ahif4 ,about this time he painted upon a small scale an almost full-length portrait called ,the ,philosopher4 ,it was of the artist1 ,holloway4 ,holloway died on the #eth ,march #ahig1 and in the sadness of the attendant circumstances the kindness of ,whistler will always be remembered4 ,there were qualities in ,holloway's art of which ,whistler was appreciative1 and a characteristic story can be connected with this4 ,there is a picture of the sea in the ,national ,gallery at ,milbanke called ,britain's ,realm1 by ,john ,brett1 ,r4,a4 ,it had great success in its year1 at the ,academy4 ,everybody went to see it1 and it was eventually bought for the ,chantry ,bequest4 ,it had figured also in an exhibition of sea-pieces at the ,fine ,art ,society4 ,whistler happened to be at this exhibition when somebody very enthusiastic over the picture brought him up to it expecting him to admire it also1 but ,whistler glanced at it through his eye-glass1 turned and emphasising his words with a very significant gesture towards the representation of sea--as if knocking at a door--said with his sardonic ,h1 ,h1--,tin6 if you threw a stone on to this1 it would make a rumbling noise1 and turning to a picture by ,holloway said--,this is art6 ,also in this year ,whistler was very preoccupied with the art of lithography4 ,his wife was ill1 and they were staying at the ,savoy ,hotel4 ,whistler used to sit at the window all day looking out upon the river1 and in these circumstances he made one of the best series of lithographs4 ,with the recovery of ,mrs4 ,whistler they moved up to ,hampstead1 where he said he was living on a landscape4 ,at the same time he was renting a studio in ,fitzroy ,street1 at ,no4 #h1 now called the ,whistler ,studios4 ,in choosing it1 ,whistler had said1 ,after all1 this is the classic ground for studios1 and he had as neighbour a tried friend4 ,on ,may the #gth1 #ahif1 ,mrs4 ,whistler died1 and she was buried on the #adth4 ,the next day he came down to the studios and walked with his friend4 ,they took lunch in the neighbourhood of ,tottenham ,court ,road4 ,whistler spoke of the strangeness of fatality4 ,he had postponed his wife's funeral a day to escape the #acth1 the #adth was her birthday4 ,they sat on1 ,whistler in the deepest depression1 and to divert him his companion1 ,mr4 ,ludovici1 pointed to a print exactly over his head4 ,it was of ,frith's ,margate ,sands6 ,after the death of his wife1 ,whistler lived much in retirement1 though travelling a little4 ,he returned to ,chelsea1 and died there in his #gjth year in ,july #aijc4 ,his life added as richly to its associations as the lives of his two great contemporaries ,rossetti and ,carlyle1 both of whom are commemorated upon the embankment of the river close to the places where they lived4 ,there is now a movement well on foot to place a memorial there to ,whistler1 to be designed by that other artist1 ,monsieur ,rodin1 who on so different a scale has been inspired by the same half mystic motives4 ,to appeal to us1 not with fairy tales1 but with art imaginative in its deference to our imagination4 ,whistler was without excessive1 spendthrift1 creative power4 ,in many ways his art was slight4 ,yet even so1 not because it is empty1 but because it outlines for us so much that is only visible to thought1 though thought always in relation to external beauty4 ,and the indefiniteness of his art1 the grey of its colour1 they are emblematic of the times1 as the plain red and blue of ,titian belonged to those days1 and are resemblant of the plainer issues that then divided men's thoughts4 ,admitting all his own limitations to himself ,whistler admitted none of them to other people1 and to those who divined his weaknesses at certain points he seemed somewhat of a charlatan4 ,perhaps in the near future his fame will again seem to suffer1 from the strict analysis of the pretensions put forward in his name1 but if so1 only to triumph again as the true character of his achievement comes to be distinguished4 ,he was such an instinctive artist that the explanation of his art must1 to some extent1 have remained hidden from himself1 and ,art fixing his place among her masters1 will remember that great limitation in some ways is always the price of a new and instinctive knowledge in others4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,derby and ,london ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh