distinguished confrères and eminent persons had long ceased their
habit, has, I gather, clearly given pain. This, I see, is much
remarked on. It is even found inconsiderate and unseemly in me, as
hinting at affectation.
“I might beg you, sir, to find a pretty place for this, that I
would make my ‘apology,’ containing also promise, in years to
come, to lose these outer signs of vexing presumption.
“Protesting, with full enjoyment of its unmerited eulogy, against
your premature tablet, I ask you again to contradict it, and appeal
to your own sense of kind sympathy when I tell you I learn that I
have, lurking in London, still ‘a friend’--though for the life of
me I cannot remember his name.
“And I have, sir, the honor to be
“J. MCNEILL WHISTLER.”
In the spring of 1903, only a few months before his death, three of his
pictures were withdrawn from the annual exhibition of the Society of
American Artists in New York. They had not been sent in by him, but
loaned by the owner upon the understanding they would be given the
prominence which he thought Whistler’s work deserved.
In the absence of the owner in Europe the whole matter was left in
charge of a member of the society,--a well-known artist,--who, when he
saw where the committee had placed the little pictures, promptly
withdrew them, and notified the owner of his action, which was approved.
Whistler learned of the matter, and wrote the following letter:
“DEAR MR. L---- : I have just learned with distress that my
canvases have been a trouble and a cause of thought to the
gentlemen of the hanging committee.
“Pray present to them my compliments and my deep regrets.
“I fear also that this is not the first time of simple and
good-natured intrusion,--‘looking in,’ as who should say, with
beaming fellowship and crass camaraderie upon the highly-finished
table and well-seated guests,--to be kindly and swiftly shuffled
into some further respectable place, that all be well and
hospitality endure.
“Promise, then, for me, that I have learned and that this ‘shall
not occur again.’ And, above all, do not allow a matter of colossal
importance to ever interfere with the afternoon habit of peace and
good will and the leaf of the mint so pleasantly associated with
this society.
“I could not be other than much affected by your warm and immediate
demonstration, but I should never forgive myself were the
consequences of lasting vexation to your distinguished confrères,
and, believe me, dear Mr. L----, very sincerely,
“J. MCNEILL WHISTLER.
"LONDON, April 7, 1903."
To the end he worked with indefatigable energy, save only those days and
hours when he was compelled by exhaustion or by the physicians to rest.
Work was a tonic to him, and, while painting, the rebellious organs of
his body were submissive to his genius.
He would forget himself when, brush in hand, he stood before a canvas.
* * * * *
During the spring of 1903 he had been far from well. Into May he worked,
but not regularly nor for long at a time. In June he was quite ill, and
his friends were apprehensive; but in the early part of July he began to
gain, so that he took long drives and planned resuming his work.
On the afternoon of July 16 he was out for a drive and in the best of
spirits, with plans for the future that even a younger man could not
hope to execute.
* * * * *
Art, the ever-youthful mistress of his life, urged him on. Should he
confess before her the ravages of years? In dauntless enthusiasm, in
boundless ambition, in spirit unsubdued he was still young. He struggled
to his feet and for the last time stood before the canvas,--the magic
mirror from which he, wizzard-like, had evoked so many beautiful images;
he thought of the things he yet would do, of lines that would charm for
all time, of colors that would play like the iridescent hues upon the
surface of the shimmering sea, of the wraith-like images of people which
lurked in the depths of the canvas awaiting the touch of his wand to
step forth in all their stately dignity and beauty.
And the soul of the master was filled with delight.
But the visions of beauty were shattered,
Like forms of the mist they were scattered--
As bubbles are blown by a breath--
By the grim, haunting spectre of Death.
The tired body could not respond, and there where he had worked, on the
afternoon of Friday, July 17, the great painter died.
* * * * *
On the following Wednesday the funeral services were held in the old
church at Chelsea where he often went with his mother, and he was buried
beside her in the graveyard at Chiswick.
“_We have then but to wait--until with the mark of the gods upon
him--there come among us again the chosen--who shall continue what
has gone before. Satisfied that, even were he never to appear, the
story of the beautiful is already complete--hewn in the marbles of
the Parthenon--and broidered, with the birds, upon the fan of
Hokusai--at the foot of Fusiyama._”--WHISTLER’S “Ten o’Clock.”
INDEX
[Illustration]
Ajaccio, 281
Albany, 33
Allen, Sir William, 35
America, attitude towards, 52-53;
desire to visit, 22;
trip to South America, 22-23
American appreciation, 15-17;
art, future of, 63-64;
characteristics, 64-65
Americanism, Whistler’s, 47-48
Ancestors, 25-28
Anecdotes and sayings, as a teacher, 277-281;
attitude towards America, 52-53;
authenticity of stories, 81-82;
bailiff in the “White House,” 112-113;
Balaam’s ass, 84-85;
blue-and-white china, 70;
Boer war, 45;
Carlyle portrait, 123;
colors and pigments used, 72-73;
concerning a sitter, 238-239;
concerning birth, 29;
concerning Carlyle and Miss Alexander, 121;
concerning Chicago, 27;
concerning each portrait, 241-242;
concerning his portraits, 255;
concerning poor lawyers, 148;
concerning purchasers, 265-266;
concerning sittings required, 30-31;
continually polishing, 84-85;
Dieppe, 34;
disintegration of the Royal Society of British Artists, 218;
early days in Paris, 86-88;
early days in Venice, 92-95;
effacing an insult, 43;
falling down stairs, 114;
first money earned with brush, 80-81;
Henry James, 85;
his umbrella, 227;
Hogarth, 55;
house-painters, 212;
late to dinner, 29-30;
Leighton, 82-84;
in lithography suit, 103;
man whose coat did not fit, 42;
“Nana,” 151-153;
Napoleon and I, 281;
Nature looking up, 214;
necktie of a sitter, 191;
no artistic period, 73-78;
old Delft, 71;
painting in the dark, 214;
“Peacock Room,” 129;
of Peter the Great, 35;
railway accident, 33-34;
rebuking an admirer, 162;
rich man’s house, 56;
Rossetti, 111;
Royal Academy, 116-119;
Savoy Hotel, 181;
school, 61;
selling his pictures, 274-275;
Stoeckl dinner, 40-41;
story of “The Yellow Buskin,” 119-120;
studio on ground floor, 229;
the arrangement in gray, 194;
the color of a critic’s clothes, 195;
the grocer’s shop, 193-194;
the millionaire, 276;
the model and the red background, 280;
the pupil who smoked, 279;
the republic and Whistler, 281;
the Ruskin trial, 144-147;
the studio stove, 231;
to the Prince of Wales, 217;
trip to Valparaiso, 22-23;
unwelcome callers at studio, 228;
visit of students to his studio, 134-135;
“warm personal enemy,” 156;
West Point, 36;
while in service of Coast and Geodetic Survey, 37-41
Angelo, Michael, 253
Appearance and characteristics, 36;
alertness, 85;
a poser, 149-155;
approachable, except in studio, 227-228;
as a story-teller, 224;
at home, 222;
attitude towards art and artists, 122;
attitude towards nature, 213-216;
attitude towards other artists, 56;
attitude towards purchasers, 265-272;
attitude towards the Royal Academy, 115-119;
careless about keeping list of works, 90;
courage, 42-43;
dilatory habits, 37-41;
dress when a young man, 41-42;
George Moore’s theory, 168-172;
his Americanism, 47-78;
his dislikes and prejudices, 271-272;
laugh, 119;
military spirit, 45-46;
no commercial instinct, 111;
no mystery about his art, 106-108;
on the street, 226;
Puritan element, 49-50;
refinement, 50;
sense of humor, 82;
superstitions, 44;
susceptibility to color intervals, 191-195;
West Point, 44;
when twenty, 38-40
Art, abstract use of color, 211;
and physique, 168-172;
early love for, 35;
harmonies in line, 182;
his paintings and poetry, 182;
of pure line, 180-181;
Oriental, 176;
purely sensuous, 180
Artistic period, 73-78
Autograph character of work, 105-106
Balcony,” “The, 58
Baptism, 32
Baronet _vs._ The Butterfly, 266-270
Beauties of form and color, 185-186
Beethoven, 257;
relation to, 176
Birth, 28-29, 31-32
Boston, proposed exhibition of pictures, 20
Bouguereau, 277
Boxall, Sir William, 53-54
Brothers and sisters, 32
Burne-Jones, 176;
Ruskin trial, 146
Carlyle, 119;
and Froude, 122-123;
as a friend, 121-122
Catalogues, 167-168, 265;
of exhibition in 1892, 160-161;
of lithographs, 104.
See Exhibitions
Character. See Appearance and characteristics
Chelsea, Carlyle as neighbor and sitter, 121-122;
Carlyle’s description, 109-111;
death and last illness, 285-286;
early days in, 109;
his last home, 281-286;
the bailiff, 112-113;
“White House,” 112-113;
“White House” occupied by a critic, 114
Chicago, grandfather founded, 26-27
Chinese and Japanese art, 181;
autograph character of Japanese art, 105-106;
blue china, 61;
degradation of Japanese art, 78;
influence of, 55
Chiswick, buried at, 286
Coast and Geodetic Survey, 39-40
Color, “ability to feel,” 208;
abstract composition, 197;
and the musical scale, 195-196;
art of pure color, 180-181;
beauties of, 185-186;
decoration, 128-135;
first color harmonies, 58;
his own explanation of, 178-180;
illustrated in different pictures, 211;
in Italy and Greece, 198;
of sculptor, 206;
range of color-notes, 189-191;
Ruskin’s attitude towards, 158-160, 199-208;
Ruskin trial, 145-146;
sense of, lost, 183-184;
supreme as a colorist, 173;
the house-painter and decorator, 186;
used imitatively, 204, 207, 209;
Whistler’s susceptibility to, 191-195
Colorist. See Color
Commercial side, lacking, 265-276
Conversation, a lost art, 149-151
Courage, 33, 36, 42-43
Criticism, language of, 161
Criticisms in America, 15-16
Critics, arraignment of, in catalogue, 98-102, 160-161, 167-168
Critics and criticisms, attitude towards, 162-165;
early criticism of Turner, 142-143;
George Moore, 168-172;
his attitude towards, 155-157;
his color harmonies not understood, 184;
is the painter the final judge?, 162-165;
order of appreciation, 173-175;
Ruskin’s attitude towards color, 158-160;
“Voice of a People,” 165-167
Dealers, attitude towards, 276
Death and last illness, 285-286
Decoration, 127-133;
as a decorator, 131-135;
in home in Paris, 220-222;
“Peacock Room,” 128-131, 209
Dieppe, 33-34
Dress, 41-42
Eden, Sir William, 267-270
England’s indifference, 47-49
Englishman’s stupidity, 16
Etchings, appreciation of a collector, 96-97;
of Haden, 96;
catalogues of, 91;
early French criticism, 60;
“French Set,” 90;
Haden collection of, 96;
his first, 88-89;
his “Venice Set,” 91;
“Thames Set,” 91;
“Twenty-six Etchings,” 91
Exhibitions, 1868, 177;
1893, 65;
at Antwerp, 263;
at Chicago, 263;
at London, 265;
at Paris, 1894, 24, 264;
at the Royal Academy, 114-119;
criticisms of, 98-101;
his catalogues, 99-101;
light and background required for his pictures, 134-139;
of etchings, 1883, 97;
of lithographs, 104;
reluctant about exhibiting, 262-264;
Society of American Artists in 1903, 284-285;
Society of British Artists, 136;
special, 120-121;
with artificial light, 135;
“Yellow and White,” 98, 132
Family, 25-28;
brothers and sisters, 32;
father, 27-28, 35;
mother, 28;
mother’s diary, 34-35
Fine Arts Society, 121
Foreword, 7
Form, appreciation of, 203
Fort Dearborn, grandfather built, 26-27
French art, influence of, 57-60;
criticism, early, 59-60
Frith, 177;
Ruskin trial, 146
Fur Jacket,” “The, 65
Gainesborough, 249, 250
Gentle Art of Making Enemies,” “The, 32, 154-155
Glasgow and the Carlyle portrait, 124;
school, 55
Gleyre, 57, 59, 79
Gold Screen,” “The, 58
Greece, art of, 63
Grosvenor Gallery, 119
Haden, 32, 88-89, 96
Hague, The, illness at, 281-284;
letter from, 282-284
Hanging of pictures, 124-128
Harmonies, symphonies, and nocturnes, his explanation of, 178-180
“Hermes,” by Praxiteles, 261
Hogarth, 55, 249, 250
Honors and awards, 264
Impressionism, 72
Ingres, copy of painting by, 80-81
Interior decorator, 127-128
International Society, 121
Irish ancestors, 25, 47
Italian painters, influence of, 71-72
Japanese art and influence of, 55.
See Chinese and Japanese art
Khayyam, Omar, 243
Lange Leizen,” “The, 58
Leyland, F. R., 128-131
Light and background for pictures, 134-139;
as distinguished from color, 160
Lithographs, naming of, 183
Lithography, 102-104, 180. See Exhibitions, Catalogues
Lowell, 31-32
Manet, 249-250
Marines, 24, 274-275
Marriage, 219
Method. See Work
Miss Alexander, 50, 119
“Mona Lisa,” 251
Moore, “Modern Painting,” 168-172
Mother, diary of, 34-35;
portrait of, 53-54, 58, 115
Music, 176-177;
and color, 193;
and painting, 179;
and the color scale, 195-196;
range of sounds, 186-188;
the uneducated ear, 196;
“truths of sound,” 203-204
National influence, 61-78
Nature and art, 213-216;
and color, 216;
and music, 215
Naval Academy, 37
Nocturnes, 119. See Pictures
Nude, attitude towards, 50-51
Painting and music, 179;
flat tones, 212;
his manner and mode of, 231-237
Paris as an art centre, 62-63;
early days in, 86-88;
home life in, 222-224;
in 1855, 79;
Rue du Bac, 219;
studio, 131, 132
Pastels, 106-107
“Peacock Room,” 128-131, 209;
trouble over payment, 129-130
Phidias, 253
Philadelphia, 120
Physical appearances. See Appearance and characteristics
Picture galleries, 124-128
Pictures, arrangement of, by periods, 211;
“At the Piano,” 114, 210;
Carlyle portrait, 123-124;
estimation of, 261;
exhibition of, to visitors, 133-135;
“Falling Rocket,” 140;
hanging of, a lost art, 124-128;
hanging of portrait of his mother, 115;
“Lange Leizen,” 210;
marines, 212;
naming of, 178, 183, 185;
“Nocturnes,” “Harmonies,” and “Symphonies,” 210, 211;
present prices of, 114-115;
“The Princess of the Land of Porcelain,” 58, 128, 210;
“Little Rose, Lyme Regis,” 273;
story of “The Yellow Buskin,” 119-120;
Symphonies in White, II. and III., 210;
“Thames in Ice,” 210;
“The Balcony,” 210;
“The Gold Screen,” 210;
the Japanese group, 210, 211;
“The Music Room,” 210;
“White Girl,” 59-60, 109, 210, 282;
“The Yellow Buskin,” 65.
See Portraits
Pomfret, 36
Portraits, classification of, 248;
color compositions, 258;
difference between Whistler and Velasquez, 256-258;
each one to be a masterpiece, 241-242;
his best, 261-262;
Irving as Philip II., 119;
Lady Campbell, 119;
likeness, 258-262;
manner and mode of painting, 231-237;
Miss Gilchrist, 119;
of Lady E----, 269;
portrait-painting, 244;
sittings required, 30-31, 235;
wraith-like quality, 255
Praxiteles, 261
“Propositions” and “The Ten o’Clock,” 108
Providence, 32
Puritan element, 49-50
Racial influence, 61-78
Raphael, 253
Rembrandt, 67, 175, 244, 253, 254, 255, 256;
essentially Dutch, 67
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 247, 249, 252
Rosa Corder, 119
Rossetti, 111
Rossi, Carmen, school of, 277-281
Royal Academy, attitude towards, 114-119;
exhibitions at, etc., 114-119
Royal Society of British Artists, 217
Rue du Bac, 219
Ruskin and flat tones, 212;
attitude towards color, 158-160, 199-208;
attitude towards early criticism of Turner, 143;
color in his home, 207-208;
his limitations, 165;
suit, 140-149
Savoy Hotel, 181
Sayings. See Anecdotes and sayings
School, no American, 61-63;
of Carmen Rossi, 277-281
Sculptor and portrait busts, 245-246
Society of British Artists, exhibition of, 136
Sounds, range of musical, 186-188
Springfield, 33
St. Petersburg, 27-28, 34-35
Stonington, 32, 35
Stories. See Anecdotes and sayings
Studio, description of, 230-231;
in Paris, 229
Swinburne, 74, 177
Taylor, Tom, 146
Teacher, as a, 277-281
“Ten o’Clock,” no artistic period, 73-78
Time, dilatory habits, 37-41;
indifference to, 29-31;
never prompt, 30
Travel, dislike for, 33-34;
effect of, on artists, 69-70
Turner and color, 199;
early criticism of, 142-143;
Whistler’s appreciation of, 56
Valparaiso, trip to, 22-23
Velasquez, 60, 175, 244, 251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257;
essentially Spanish, 68;
influence of, 71
Venice, early days in, 92-95
“Voice of a People,” 165-167
Water-color, his first, 106
Webster, Daniel, letter to, 35-36
West Point, 35-36
Westerly, 32
“White Girl,” 53, 283
“White House.” See Chelsea
Will, 240
Witticisms. See Anecdotes and sayings
Work always a pleasure, 90-91;
as a decorator, 128-135;
colors and pigments used, 72-73;
description of method, 231-237;
exhibition to visitors, 133-135;
facility in execution, 23;
his attitude towards a sitter, 238-239, 241;
painting in the dark, 213-214;
volume of, 104-105
Yellow Buskin,” “The, 119, 256
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. A. Lindenkohl, now the oldest draughtsman in the department.
[2] G. W. Smalley, in the London _Times_.
[3] _The Nation_, vol. liv., pp. 280-281, April 14, 1892.
[4] New York _Tribune_, July 26, 1903.
[5] New York _Evening Post_, August 1, 1903.
[6] _Fortnightly Review_, June, 1888.
[7] _The Independent_, November 2, 1899.
[8] Major W. L. B. Jenney, in the _American Architect_, January 1, 1898.
[9] Wedmore, Fine Prints, p. 103.
[10] Wedmore’s Catalogue, pp. 19-20.
[11] Printed by H. Wunderlich & Co., New York.
[12] W. S. Adams, in the Springfield _Republican_.
[13] _McClure’s Magazine_, vol. vii. p. 374.
[14] _Knowledge_, April 5, 1883, p. 208.
[15] _The Academy_, February 24, 1883, p. 139.
[16] _Knowledge_, April 6, 1883, pp. 208, 209.
[17] Owned by Frank Gair Macomber, Esq., of Boston.
[18] Gentle Art, p. 116.
[19] Life of Carlyle, First Forty Years, vol. ii., pp. 345-6.
[20] _McClure’s Magazine_, vol. vii. p. 374.
[21] _McClure’s Magazine_, vol. vii. p. 374.
[22] G. W. Smalley, in the London _Times_. Reprinted in the New York
_Tribune_, August 19, 1903.
[23] _Harper’s Weekly_, August 1, 1903.
[24] _Library Gazette_, May 14, 1842 p. 331.
[25] _Athenæum_, May 14, 1842, p. 433.
[26] See opening paragraph of Chapter II. of the first and second
editions of the first volume of “Modern Painters.”
[27] John Ruskin, by Spielmann, p. 34.
[28] Modern Painters, vol. iii., chap. xvii., paragraph 18.
[29] _Saturday Review_, March 26, 1892, p. 357.
[30] Moore, Modern Painting, p. 6.
[31] _The Critic_, vol. xxxviii. p. 32, January, 1901.
[32] Gentle Art, p. 126.
[33] Gentle Art, pp. 127, 128.
[34] Ibid., p. 128.
[35] Helmholtz, Sensations of Tone, p. 265.
[36] Fleming, Waves and Ripples in Water, Air, and Æther, p. 252.
[37] Physiological Optics, p. 237.
[38] Modern Painters, vol. i., part ii., sec. i., chap. v., par. 3.
[39] Modern Painters, vol. i., part ii., sec. i., chap. v., par. 8, 9.
[40] Ibid., sec. ii., chap. ii., par. 12.
[41] Modern Painters, vol. i., part ii., sec. ii., chap. ii., par. 17,
20.
[42] Gentle Art, p. 128.
[43] Gentle Art, pp. 143, 144.
[44] Gentle Art, p. 143.
[45] London _Times_, July 18, 1903.
[46] Gentle Art, pp. 177, 178.
[47] E. S. Crawford, in _The Reader_, September, 1903.
[48] See page 185.