REFLECTION: I do know a bird, who like Oscar, with his head in
the sand, still believes in the undiscovered!
If to be misunderstood is to be great, it was rash in Oscar
to reveal the source of his inspirations: the “_Biographical
Dictionary_.”
J. A. McN. W.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE “NATIONAL
ART EXHIBITION”
The World, Nov. 17, 1886.
GENTLEMEN――I am naturally interested in any effort made among painters
to prove that they are alive――but when I find, thrust in the van of
your leaders, the body of my dead ’Arry, I know that putrefaction alone
can result. When following ’Arry, there comes on Oscar, you finish
in farce, and bring upon yourselves the scorn and ridicule of your
confrères in Europe.
What has Oscar in common with Art? except that he dines at our tables,
and picks from our platters the plums for the pudding he peddles in the
provinces. Oscar――the amiable, irresponsible, esurient Oscar――with no
more sense of a picture than of the fit of a coat, has the courage of
the opinions ... of others!
With ’Arry and Oscar you have avenged the Academy.
I am, gentlemen, yours obediently,
J. A. McN. WHISTLER.
Letter read at a meeting of this Society, associated for
purposes of Art reform.
Enclosed to the Poet, with a line: “Oscar, you must really keep
outside the radius.”
J. A. McN. W.