THE WHISTLER BOOK
WORKS OF SADAKICHI HARTMANN
Shakespeare in Art $2.00
Japanese Art 2.00
The Whistler Book 2.50
A History of American Art 2 vols. 4.00
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
53 BEACON ST., BOSTON, MASS.
[Illustration: _James McNeill Whistler From the painting by Boldini_]
The
Whistler Book
_A Monograph of the Life and Position in Art of James McNeill Whistler,
together with a Careful Study of his more Important Works_
BY
SADAKICHI HARTMANN
Author of "A History of American Art," "Japanese Art," etc.
With fifty-seven reproductions of Mr. Whistler's most important works
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
BOSTON * * * MDCCCCX
_Copyright_, _1910_,
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY.
(INCORPORATED)
Entered at Stationer's Hall, London
* * * * *
_All rights reserved_
First Impression, October, 1910
_Electrotyped and Printed by_
_THE COLONIAL PRESS_
_C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A._
TO
THOSE PAINTERS
UPON WHOSE SHOULDERS
THE BLACK MANTLE OF
WHISTLER'S MUSE
MAY FALL
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introductory--White Chrysanthemums 1
II. Quartier Latin and Chelsea 6
III. The Butterfly 39
IV. The Art of Omission 58
V. On Light and Tone Problems 81
VI. Symphonies in Interior Decoration 100
VII. Visions and Identifications 121
VIII. In Quest of Line Expression 147
IX. Moss-like Gradations 168
X. Whistler's Iconoclasm 182
XI. As His Friends Knew Him 209
XII. The Story of the Beautiful 233
Bibliography 253
Principal Magazine Articles 259
Principal Paintings 262
Nocturnes 265
Index 267
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Portrait of James McNeill Whistler, by Boldini
(_See page 230_) _Frontispiece_
The Self Portrait of 1859 8
Pen and Ink Sketch, Made at West Point 11
Drawing Made for the United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey 12
Portrait Sketch of Fantin-Latour 14
"Hommage à Delacroix," by Fantin-Latour 17
The Woman in White 19
_Owned by John H. Whittemore._
Arrangement in Black: F. R. Leyland 22
_National Gallery, Washington._
Jo (Etching) 28
Wapping Wharf (Etching) 36
Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room 44
_Owned by Frank J. Hecker._
Lange Leizen of the Six Marks: Purple and Rose 49
_Owned by John G. Johnson._
The Princess of the Porcelain Land 50
_National Gallery, Washington._
Symphony in White, II: The Little White Girl 53
_Owned by Arthur Studd._
On the Balcony: Variations in Flesh-colour and Green 54
_National Gallery, Washington._
Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket 58
_Owned by Mrs. Samuel Untermyer._
Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge 67
_Tate Gallery, London._
Nocturne in Gray and Gold: Chelsea, Snow 70
Nocturne in Blue and Silver 74
Lady in Gray 83
_Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum, New York._
"L'Andalusienne" 86
_Owned by John H. Whittemore._
Sir Henry Irving as Philip II 90
_Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum, New York._
Arrangement in Black and White: Lady Meux (No. 1) 94
Arrangement in Black: Senor Pablo Sarasate 97
_Carnegie Art Institute, Pittsburg._
Shutter Decoration, Peacock Room 104
Arrangement in Gray and Green: Miss Alexander 109
Eagle Wharf (Etching) 118
At the Piano 122
Arrangement in Black and Brown: Miss Rose Corder 128
_Owned by Richard A. Canfield._
Arrangement in Black: Lady Archibald Campbell
(The Yellow Buskin) 137
_Wilstach Gallery, Philadelphia._
Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte de Montesquiou 142
_Owned by Richard A. Canfield._
Arrangement in Black and Gray: Thomas Carlyle 144
_City Art Gallery, Glasgow._
Arrangement in Black and Gray: the Artist's Mother 146
_Luxembourg Gallery, Paris._
"La Vieille aux Loques" (Etching) 149
Street in Saverne (Etching) 150
Portrait of Drouet (Etching) 153
Black Lion Wharf (Etching) 154
Wapping, on the Thames (Etching) 160
Old Hungerford Bridge (Etching) 162
The Silent Canal (Etching) 164
View of Amsterdam (Etching) 166
Nocturne (Lithograph) 170
Little Rose of Lyme Regis 175
_Boston Museum of Fine Arts._
Study of Nude Figure (Chalk Drawing) 176
Pastel Study 178
_Owned by Th. R. Way._
Archway, Venice (Pastel) 182
_Owned by Howard Mansfield._
The Japanese Dress (pastel) 186
_Owned by Howard Mansfield._
Mr. Kennedy: Portrait Study 192
_Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum, New York._
The Lime Burner (Etching) 198
Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé (Lithograph) 209
Arrangement in Flesh-colour and Black: Theodore Duret 214
The Unsafe Tenement (Etching) 220
In the Sunshine (Etching) 226
The Pool (Etching) 232
Arrangement in Black and White: "L'Américaine" 238
The Fiddler (Etching) 246
Nocturne in Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge 248
The Whistler Book
CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTORY
WHITE CHRYSANTHEMUMS[1]
[Footnote 1: Published originally in "Camera Work," 1903.]
The white chrysanthemum is my favourite flower. There are other flowers,
I grant, perhaps more beautiful, which I cannot help admiring, but the
white chrysanthemum somehow appeals to me more than any other flower.
Why? That is more than I can tell. The unconscious movements of our soul
activity cannot be turned into sodden prose. What would be the use of
having a favourite flower if one could give any reason for liking it? It
merely reveals that part of our personality, not to be logically
explained, which rises within us like the reminiscences of some former
soul existence. There are colours and certain sounds and odours which
effect me similarly. Whenever I gaze at a white chrysanthemum, my mind
becomes conscious of something which concerns my life alone; something
which I would like to express in my art, but which I shall never be able
to realize, at least not in the vague and, at the same time, convincing
manner the flower conveys it to me. I am also fond of displaying it
occasionally in my buttonhole; not for effect, however, but simply
because I want other people to know who I am; for those human beings who
are sensitive to the charms of the chrysanthemum, must hail from the
same country in which my soul abides, and I should like to meet them. I
should not have much to say to them--souls are not talkative--but we
should make curtsies, and hand white chrysanthemums to one another.
Whistler was busy all his life painting just such white chrysanthemums.
You smile? Well, I think I can persuade you to accept my point of view.
You are probably aware that Whistler was opposed to realism. The
realists endorse every faithful reproduction of facts. Also, Whistler
believed all objects beautiful, but only under certain conditions, at
certain favoured moments. It is at long intervals and on rare occasions
that nature and human life reveal their highest beauty. It was
Whistler's life-long endeavour to fix such supreme and happy moments,
the white chrysanthemums of his æsthetic creed, upon his canvases. Have
you never seen a country lass and thought she should be dressed up as a
page--her limbs have such a lyrical twist, as George Meredith would
say--she should stand on the steps of a throne, and the hall should be
illuminated with a thousand candles? Have you never met a New England
girl, and thought that she was ill-suited to her present surroundings,
that she would look well only standing on the porch of some old Colonial
mansion, in the evening, when odours of the pelargoniums and gladioli
begin to fill the garden? Have you not noticed that a bunch of cut
flowers which looks beautiful in one vase may become ugly in another?
And how often has it not happened to all of us that we were startled by
a sudden revelation of beauty in a person whom we have known for years
and who has looked rather commonplace to us? Suddenly, through some
expression of grief or joy, or merely through a passing light or shadow,
all the hidden beauty bursts to the surface and surprises us with its
fugitive charms. Whistler's "At the Piano," "The Yellow Buskin," "Old
Battersea Bridge," "Chelsea: Snow," are painted in that way. Could you
imagine his "Yellow Buskin Lady" in any other way than buttoning her
gloves, and glancing back, for a last time, over her shoulder, as she is
walking away from you into grey distances! That peculiar turn of her
body reveals the quintessence of her beauty. And that is the reason why
Whistler has painted her in that attitude. Thus every object has its
moment of supreme beauty. In life these moments are as fugitive as the
fractions of a second. Through art they can become a permanent and
lasting enjoyment.
The ancient Greek believed in an ideal standard of beauty to which the
whole universe had to conform. The modern artist, on the other hand,
sees beauty only in such moments as are entirely individual to the forms
and conditions of life he desires to portray. And as it pains him that
his conception of beauty will die with him, he becomes an artist through
the very endeavour of preserving at least a few fragments of it for his
fellow-men. With Whistler, this conception was largely a sense for tone,
a realization of some dream in black and silvery grey, in pale gold or
greenish blues. A vague flare of colour in some dark tonality was, to
him, the island in the desert which he had to seek, unable to rest until
he had found it. He saw life in visions, and his subjects were merely
means to express them. In his "Lady Archibald Campbell" he cared more
for black and grey gradations and the yellow note of the buskin than for
the fair sitter. The figure is, so to speak, invented in the character
of the colour arrangement. Whistler once said he would like best to
paint for an audience that could dispense with the representation of
objects and figures, with all pictorial actualities, and be satisfied
solely with the music of colour.
And why should we not profit by his lesson, and learn to look at
pictures as we look at the flush of the evening sky, at a passing cloud,
at the vision of a beautiful woman, or at a white chrysanthemum!