Transcriber's Note:
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Obvious punctuation errors and typos repaired.
Footnotes moved to end of relevant chapters.
Index of Illustrations adjusted to match HTML version.
Two un-indexed illustrations, 'WHISTLER'S GRAVE IN CHISWICK
CEMETERY ADJOINING CHISWICK CHURCHYARD' and 'MONUMENT IN
WHISTLER'S MEMORY AT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
AT WEST POINT', added to the "List of Illustrations".
In the original book the Illustrations are indexed as "Facing Page nnn".
These have been changed to refer to the nearest page.
THE LIFE OF JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
_Fr._ (By Himself)]
THE LIFE OF JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER
BY
E. R. AND J. PENNELL
NEW AND REVISED EDITION THE SIXTH
_ILLUSTRATED_
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_Printed in Great Britain_
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION
The Fifth Edition of our book was exhausted before war was declared,
and not until peace was declared was it thought by the publishers
advisable to issue this Sixth Edition, which has been revised and
brought up to date, and contains new material and new illustrations.
All the while we have been collecting and verifying documents, and all
the while we have received suggestions, facts, and inquiries. The book
has been published in French, but for the war it would have been long
since translated into other languages. During these years of needless,
senseless, useless horrors, the name and fame of Whistler have steadily
grown. His works have served as propaganda--what a comment!--even the
portrait of his mother has been used as a poster by the British, and
his own portrait has obtained the glory of appearing as a tribute to
the power of advertising. All the while, endless stories, most of them
garbled from this book, when not invented, have gone from end to end
of the world. Exhibitions of his paintings and prints and of documents
relating to him have been held. Galleries and private collectors have
acquired what little of his work was left to acquire. Even the National
Gallery of Great Britain has accepted three of his pictures from the
late Arthur Studd though Whistler had distinctly said that he did not
wish to be represented in any English gallery. Dealers have found in
his art inexhaustible attraction and asset for shows. Mr. Freer's
collection in the National Museum, Washington, is about to open. Our
collection is being installed in the Library of Congress, also in
Washington--though it was damaged by unpardonable and undiscoverable
carelessness in transit, caused by this cursed war. Washington must
soon be visited to see Whistler as Madrid is to see Velasquez. All the
while, too, the financial appreciation of Whistler--the standard by
which art and everything is judged to-day--has vastly increased, the
_Mrs. Leyland_ and _Lady Meux_ selling for more hundreds of thousands
than he asked hundreds of dollars for. His etchings and lithographs
have so improved in value in the collector's estimation that persons
whom Whistler did everything to help in forming their collections have
considered them too valuable to keep, and so have parted with them at
an enormous rise over even his "posthumous prices." What would he have
thought of all this, he who so carefully selected the prints "kindly
lent their owners?"
Whistler, fortunately, has escaped the indignity of commercial
popularity, but he has come into his own; his name and his fame are
world-wide, he is with the immortals; we said so in the beginning,
and time has proved us right. There have been no books of importance
issued about him of late years, though contemporary authors who spurned
him during his life now claim his acquaintance and add a paragraph
or a page, mostly from our book, as a bait to sell their own. Miss
Philip delays, or awaits the lapse of twenty years, before issuing the
letters. When she does print them--if properly edited--they will be a
great addition to the knowledge of Whistler. Mr. Freer announces also a
life which is to supersede or expose us, or Whistler. Still they tarry,
but anything they may issue will add to the success and, we trust,
the completeness of the authorized _Life of Whistler_. We should be
grateful for any further information, suggestions, or corrections to
that end from any of our readers.
We wish to thank, for the permission to reproduce paintings and
drawings, to consult letters and documents, Mrs. A. J. Cassatt, Mr.
Mitchell Kennerley, Mr. Roland Knvedler, Messrs. Keppel and Company,
Mr. George J. C. Grasberger, Mr. A. E. Gallatin, Mr. R. C. Frick, Mr.
West, Colonel Hughes, Mr. E. G. Kennedy, The Metropolitan Museum of New
York, The Maryland Institute, the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Putnam,
and Dr. Koch, Mr. Roberts, and Miss Wright, also of the Library of
Congress.
JOSEPH PENNELL
ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL
WASHINGTON, _July 4, 1919_
PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
Mr. and Mrs. Pennell's authorised _Life of James McNeill Whistler_
appeared in two volumes in October 1908, and has had to be reprinted in
that form three times since then. Its sale even in that comparatively
expensive form has been an unexpectedly large one, proving without
doubt that interest in Whistler's life is alive and growing. During
the three years since its first publication much new material has come
into the hands of the authors, and a complete revision of the book has
therefore become necessary. The present volume is, to all intents and
purposes, a new one. Many of the older illustrations in the earlier
editions have been superseded by new ones, a number of which are
reproduced for the first time.
For the new material included in this edition the authors and
the publisher are indebted to friends and numerous sympathetic
correspondents, and they wish to express their indebtedness
especially to Mr. John W. Beatty, Director of the Carnegie Institute
in Pittsburgh; Mr. E. D. Brooks; Mr. Clifford Gore Chambers; Mr. E.
T. Cook; Mr. Leon Dabo; Mr. Frederick Dielmann; Messrs. Dowdeswell;
M. Théodore Duret; Mr. A. J. Eddy; Mrs. Wickham Flower; Right Hon.
Jonathan Hogg; Mr. H. S. Hubbell; Mr. Will H. Low; Mr. Burton
Mansfield; Judge Parry; Mr. H. Reinhardt; Mr. H. S. Ridings; Mr. Albert
Rouiller; Miss Alice Rouiller; Mr. William Scott; M. Ströhlen; Mr. Ross
Turner; Mr. C. F. G. Turner; Mr. C. Howard Walker; Mr. J. H. Wrenn.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. THE WHISTLER FAMILY.
THE YEARS EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-THREE 1
_Whistler's Ancestors--His Parents--Birth--Early Years_