"A dim, cold light fills the room, where the flat, grey wall is
only broken by a solitary picture in black and white; a piece of
foldless, creaseless, Oriental flowered crape hangs from the cornice.
And here, in this solemn chamber, sits the lady in mournful garb. The
picture has found few admirers among the thousands who seek to while
away the hours at Burlington House, and for this result the painter
has only to thank himself."--_Times._
"'Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother,' is
another of Mr. Whistler's experiments.
"It is not a picture, and we fail to discover any _object_ that the
artist can have in view in restricting himself almost entirely to
black and grey."--_Examiner._
"The 'arrangement' is stiff and ugly enough to repel many."--_Hour._
"Before such pictures as the full-length portraits by Mr. Whistler,
critic and spectator are alike puzzled. Criticism and admiration seem
alike impossible, and the mind vacillates between a feeling that the
artist is playing a practical joke upon the spectator, or that the
painter is suffering from some peculiar optical delusion. After all,
there are certain accepted canons about what constitutes good drawing,
good colour, and good painting, and when an artist deliberately sets
himself to ignore or violate all of these, it is desirable that
his work should not be classed with that of ordinary artists."--_Times._
"He that telleth a tale to ... Carlyle's majority speaketh to one
in a slumber: when he hath told his tale he will say, What is the
matter?"
[Illustration]
_RÉSUMÉ._
"It is impossible to take Mr. Whistler seriously."
_Advertiser._
"A combination of circumstances has, within the last year or two,
brought the name and work of Mr. Whistler into special publicity....
"At the Grosvenor Gallery the less desirable of his designs aroused
the inconsiderate ire of a man of genius and splendid authority.
"If it be Mr. Whistler's theory that that which all the world of
greatest artists (?) has mistaken for mere means has been in very
seriousness the end, then the aim of Art is immeasurably lowered!...
"If there be anything to the point, it is to implore us to take a
stone for bread, and the grammar of a language in place of its
literature.
"Mr. Whistler has assumed that it is only the painter who is occupied
with art.... Unless he is a very exceptional man.... If he is not of
the school of Fulham, he is of the school of Holland Park, or of the
Grove End Road.
"Has he, like Mr. Ruskin, devoted thirty years of a poet's life to the
Galleries of Europe?
"Has he, like Diderot, inquired curiously into the meaning and message
of this thing and that? And _appreciating Greuze_, been able to
_appreciate Chardin_?(!!)"
_Mr. Wedmore,
"Nineteenth Century."_
"Mr. Ruskin's whole body of doctrine, from the very young days, in
which he took the duty of teacher, on to his old age, was contradicted
by Mr. Whistler's pictures."--_Merrie England._
"In painting, his success is infrequent, and it is limited.
"In painting, Mr. Whistler is an impressionist. His best painting
betrays something of that almost modern sensitiveness to pleasurable
juxtapositions of delicate colour which we admire in Orchardson, in
Linton (_sic!_), and in Albert Moore; it betrays, sometimes, as in a
portrait of Miss Alexander, a deftness of brushwork in the wave of a
feather, in the curve of a hat ... and of high art qualities it
betrays not much besides.
"It is true that the originality of his painted work is somewhat apt
to be dependent on the innocent error that confuses the beginning with
the end, accepts the intention for the execution, and exalts an adroit
sketch into the rank of a permanent picture."
_F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_
"I think Mr. Whistler had great powers at first, which he has not
since justified."
_Mr. Jones, R.A.
Evidence in Court, Nov. 16, 1878._
"The right time and the right place for the conspicuousness of an
Impressionist were undoubtedly England, and the moment when Mr.
Whistler rose up and astonished her.
"In Paris he was one of many, though he would be at peace in
France, that peace would not be unattended with a certain comparative
obscurity.
"Inconspicuous solitude would not have had the same charms for
him."--_Merrie England._
"Au musée du Luxembourg, vient d'être placé, de M. WHISTLER, le
splendide _Portrait de Mme Whistler mère_, une oeuvre destinée à
l'éternité des admirations, une oeuvre sur laquelle la consécration
des siècles semble avoir mis la patine d'un Rembrandt, d'un Titien ou
d'un Velasquez."--_Chronique des Beaux-Arts._
MORAL.
"Modern _British_ (!) art will now be represented in the National
Gallery of the Luxembourg by one of the finest paintings due to
the brush of an _English_ (!) artist, namely, Mr. Whistler's
portrait of his mother."--_Illustrated London News._
[Illustration]
_A Zealous Inquirer_
"A brown-paper covered catalogue ... compiled by Mr. Whistler....
[Sidenote: _The World_, Mar. 23, 1892.]
"Several opinions (and his 'evidence at Westminster') are quoted of
'Mr Jones, R.A.,' in the year 1878. Who is Mr. Jones, R.A.? Mr. Jones,
R.A. (of whom the Duke of Wellington--but no matter...), died in 1869.
Mr Burne-Jones was not elected an A.R.A. until 1885. I am afraid I
expose myself, but I still venture to ask, who is 'Mr Jones, R.A.'?"
_Final Acknowledgments_
[Sidenote: _The World_, Mar. 30, 1892.]
Atlas,--Your correspondent proposes that "Mr. Jones, R.A." is not
R.A.--but _A._R.A.
_You_ know these things, Atlas--perhaps he is right, and curiously
microscopic--for surely here we have "a difference without a
distinction!"
However, R.A. or A.R.A., and, in my opinion he deserves to be both, I
personally owe Mr. Jones a friendly gratitude which I am pleased to
acknowledge; for rare indeed is the courage with which, on the first
public occasion, he sacrificed himself, in the face of all-astounded
etiquette, and future possible ridicule, in order to help write the
history of another.
These things we like to remember, Atlas, you and I--the bright things,
the droll things, the charming things of this pleasant life--and here,
too, in this lovely land they are understood--and keenly appreciated.
As to those others--alas! I am afraid we have done with them. It
was our amusement to convict--they thought we cared to convince!
_Allons!_ They have served our wicked purpose--Atlas, we "collect" no
more.
"_Autres gens, autres moeurs._"
PARIS, _March 26, 1892_.
[Illustration]
_FINIS_
_INDEX_
_Action, The_, 2.
_Admission, An_, 71.
_Advanced Critic, An_, 244.
_Advantage of Explanation, The_, 245.
_Another Poacher in the Chelsea Preserves_, 233.
_Apology, An_, 107.
_Apostasy, An_, 250.
_'Arry in the Grosvenor_, 72.
_Art Critic of the "Times," The_, 35.
_Art Critic's Friend, The_, 277.
"_Aussi que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?_", 225.
_Auto-biographical_, 288.
"_Autre Temps autre Moeurs_", 189.
_"Balaam's Ass"_, 41.
_Committee of the "National Art Exhibition," To the_, 164.
_Complacent One, The_, 196.
_"Confidences" with an Editor_, 47.
_Conviction_, 88.
_Correction, A_, 66.
_Critic "Catching on," The_, 194.
_Critic's Analysis_, 44.
_Critic's "Copy"_, 50.
_Critic's Mind Considered, The_, 45.
_Critic-flâneur, The_, 197.
_Distinction, A_, 119.
_Document, A_, 121.
_Eager Authority, An_, 70.
_Early Laurels_, 176.
_Easy Expert, The_, 113.
_Editor's Anxiety, An_, 264.
_Embroidered Interview, An_, 219.
_Encouragement_, 74.
_End of the Piece, The_, 282.
_Etchings and Dry-points_, 93.
"_Et tu, Brute!_", 259.
_Exit the Prompter_, 283.
_Exploded Plot, The_, vii.
_Extraordinary Piratical Plot, An_, v.
_Fate of an Anecdote, The_, 81.
_Final_, 39.
_Final Acknowledgments_, 333.
_Freeing a Last Friend_, 262.
_Full Absolution_, 46.
_Further Proposition, A_, 177.
_Great Literary Curiosity, A_, ix.
_Habit of Second Natures, The_, 236.
_Hint, A_, 118.
_Home of Taste, The_, 230.
_Imputation, An_, 188.
_Inconsequences_, 79.
_Inevitable, The_, 173.
_In Excelsis_, 86.
_Ingratitude_, 195.
_Insinuation, An_, 187.
_Interview with an Ex-President, An_, 205.
_"Jeux Innocents" in Tite Street_, 110.
_Just Indignation_, 243.
_Last Effort, A_, x.
_La Suite_, 61.
_Later_, 54.
_L'Envoi_, 285.
"_Les points sur les i_", 130.
_Line from the Land's End, A_, 111.
_Market Place, In the_, 239.
_Mr. Whistler and his Critics_, 91.
_Mr. Whistler "had on his own Toast"_, 289.
_Mr. Whistler's Paper Hunt_, viii.
_Mr. Whistler's "Ten o'Clock"_, 131.
_Naïf Enfant_, 68.
_New Dynasty, The_, 218.
_"Noblesse oblige"_, 174.
_Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces_, 293.
_Nostalgia_, 184.
"_Nous avons changé tout cela!_", 169.
_Official Bumbledom_, 223.
_Official Letter, An_, 229.
_Opportunity, An_, 181.
_Opportunity Neglected, The_, 183.
_Painter-Etcher Papers, The_, 52.
_"Pall Mall" Puzzled, The_, 221.
_Panic_, 241.
_Philanthropy and Art_, 166.
_Played-out Policy, A_, 199.
_Point Acknowledged, The_, 43.
_Position, The_, 37.
_Professor Ruskin's Group_, 20.
_Prologue_, 1.
_Proposal, A_, 51.
_Propositions_, 76.
_Propositions--No. 2_, 115.
_Publisher's Note_, iii.
_Quand même!_, 165.
_Question, A_, 279.
_Rassurez vous!_, 265.
_Rebuke, A_, 129.
_Red Rag, The_, 126.
_Remonstrance, A_, 75.
"_Rengaines!_", 161.
_Retrospect, A_, 213.
_Royal Society of British Artists and their Signboard_, 226.
_Sacrilege_, 124.
_Seizure of Mr. Whistler's Pirated Writings_, vi.
_Serious Sarcasm_, 38.
_Statistics_, 211.
_Straight Tip, A_, 69.
_Suggestion, A_, 235.
_Suspicion, A_, 87.
_Taking the Bait_, 106.
_Talent in a Napkin_, 193.
_Tenderness in Tite Street_, 162.
_Testimony_, 247.
_Troubled One, A_, 46.
_Unanswered Letter, An_, 78.
_Uncovered Opinions_, 80.
_Warning, A_, 67.
_"Whacking Whistler"_, 269.
_What "Mr. Whistler had on his own Toast"_, 291.
_Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics_, 21.
_Whistler's Grievance_, 266, 273.
_Zealous Inquirer, A_, 332.