Chapter V: Part 5

However, as Mr. James Whistler has had the impertinence to attack me with both venom and vulgarity in your columns, I hope you will allow me to state that the assertions contained in his letters are as deliberately untrue as they are deliberately offensive.

The definition of a disciple as one who has the courage of the opinions of his master is really too old even for Mr. Whistler to be allowed to claim it, and as for borrowing Mr. Whistler's ideas about art, the only thoroughly original ideas I have ever heard him express have had reference to his own superiority as a painter over painters greater than himself.

It is a trouble for any gentleman to have to notice the lucubrations of so ill-bred and ignorant a person as Mr. Whistler, but your publication of his insolent letter left me no option in the matter.--I remain, Sir, faithfully yours,

OSCAR WILDE.

_Panic_

[Sidenote: _Truth_, Jan. 16, 1890.]

O truth!--Cowed and humiliated, I acknowledge that our Oscar is at last original. At bay, and sublime in his agony, he certainly has, for once, borrowed from no living author, and comes out in his own true colours--as his own "gentleman."

How shall I stand against his just anger, and his damning allegations! for it must be clear to your readers, that, beside his clean polish, as prettily set forth in his epistle, I, alas! am but the "ill-bred and ignorant person," whose "lucubrations" "it is a trouble" for him "to notice."

Still will I, desperate as is my condition, point out that though "impertinent," "venomous," and "vulgar," he claims me as his "master"--and, in the dock, bases his innocence upon such relation between us.

In all humility, therefore, I admit that the outcome of my "silly vanity and incompetent mediocrity," must be the incarnation: "Oscar Wilde." _Mea culpa!_ the Gods may perhaps forgive and forget.

To you, _Truth_--champion of the truth--I leave the brave task of proclaiming again that the story of the lecture to the students of the Royal Academy was, as I told it to you, no fiction.

In the presence of Mr. Waldo Story did Oscar make his prayer for preparation; and at his table was he entrusted with the materials for his crime.

You also shall again unearth, in the _Nineteenth Century Review_ of Jan. 1889, page 37, the other appropriated property, slily stowed away, in an article on "The Decay of Lying"--though why Decay!

To shirk this matter thus is craven, doubtless; but I am awe-stricken and tremble, for truly, "the rage of the sheep is terrible!"

_Just Indignation_

Oscar--How dare you! What means this disguise?

[Sidenote: Upon perceiving the Poet, in Polish cap and
green overcoat, befrogged, and wonderfully befurred.]

Restore those things to Nathan's, and never again let me find you masquerading the streets of my Chelsea in the combined costumes of Kossuth and Mr. Mantalini!

_An Advanced Critic_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, March 28, 1888.]

Sir--I find myself obliged to notice the critical review of the "Ten o'Clock," that appeared in your paper (March 6).

In the interest of my publishers, I beg to state formally that the work has not as yet been issued at all--and I would point out that what is still in the hands of the printer, cannot possibly have fallen into the fingers of your incautious contributor!

The early telegram is doubtless the ambition of this smart, though premature and restless one--but he is wanting in habit, and unhappy in his haste!--What will you? The _Pall Mall_ and the people have been imposed upon.

Be good enough, Sir, to insert this note, lest the public suppose, upon your authority, that the "Ten o'Clock," as yet unseen in the window of Piccadilly, has, in consequence of this sudden summing up, been hurriedly withdrawn from circulation.--I am, Sir,

_The Advantage of Explanation_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, March 31, 1888.]

Sir--Just three weeks after publication Mr. Whistler "finds himself obliged to notice the critical review of the 'Ten o'Clock' that appeared in your paper." He points out that "what is still in the hands of the printer cannot possibly have fallen into the fingers of your incautious contributor." I do not pretend to be acquainted with the multitudinous matters that may be in the hands of his publishers' printers. But I can declare--and you, Sir, will corroborate me--that a printed copy of Mr. Whistler's smart but misleading lecture was placed in my hands for review, and, moreover, that the notice did not appear until the pamphlet was duly advertised by Messrs. Chatto and Windus as ready. It is, of course, a matter of regret to me if, as Mr. Whistler suggests, his publishers' interests are likely to suffer from the review; but if an author's work, in the reviewer's opinion, be full of rash statement and mischievous doctrine, the publishers must submit to the risk of frank criticism. But it will be observed that Mr. Whistler is merely seeking to create an impression that your Reviewer never saw the work he criticized, which is surely not a creditable position to take up, even by a sensitive man writhing under adverse criticism.--I am, Sir, most obediently,

YOUR REVIEWER.

_Testimony_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 7, 1888.]

Sir--My apologies, I pray you, to the much disturbed gentleman, "Your Reviewer," who complains that I have allowed "just three weeks" to go by without noticing his writing.

Let me hasten, lest he be further offended, to acknowledge his answer, in Saturday's paper.

After much matter, he comes unexpectedly upon a clear understanding of my letter--"It will be observed," he says naïvely, "that Mr. Whistler is merely seeking to create an impression that your Reviewer never saw the work he criticized,"--herein he is completely right, this is absolutely the impression I did seek to create--"which," he continues, "is surely not a creditable position to take up"--again I agree with him, and admit the sad spectacle a "Reviewer" presents in such position.

He further "declares," and calls upon you, Sir, to "corroborate" him, "that a printed copy of Mr. Whistler's misleading lecture was placed in my hands for review"--and moreover, that "the notice did not appear until the pamphlet was duly advertised by Messrs. Chatto and Windus as ready."

Pausing to note that if the lecture had not seemed misleading to him, it would surely not have been worth uttering at all, I come to the copy in question--this could only have been a printed proof, quaintly acquired--as will be seen by the following letter from Messrs. Chatto and Windus, which I must beg you Sir, to publish, with this note--as it deals also with the remaining point, the advertisement of the pamphlet,

And, I am, Sir,

The following is the letter from Mr. Whistler's publishers:--

DEAR SIR--In reply to your question we have to say that we
certainly have not sent out any copy of the "Ten o'Clock" to the
press, or to anybody else excepting yourself. The work is still
in the printers' hands, and we have for a long time past
been advertising it only as "shortly" to be published; indeed,
only a few proofs have so far been taken from the type.

Yours faithfully,

CHATTO and WINDUS.

_An Apostasy_

[Sidenote: Mr. Whistler's Lecture on Art, by Algernon
Charles Swinburne.

_Fortnightly Review_, June 1888.]

To speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth may justly be required of the average witness; it cannot be expected, it should not be exacted, of any critical writer or lecturer on any form of art....

... And it appears to one at least of those unfortunate "outsiders" for whose judgment or whose "meddling" Mr. Whistler has so imperial and Olympian a contempt....

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

"If" indeed!

]

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

"Cups and fans and screens," and Hamilton vases, and
figurines of Tanagra, and other "waterflies."

]

Let us begin at the end, as all reasonable people always do: we shall find that Mr. Whistler concedes to Greek art a place beside Japanese. Now this, on his own showing, will never do; it crosses, it contravenes, it nullifies, it pulverizes his theory or his principle of artistic limitation. If Japanese art is right in confining itself to what can be "broidered upon the fan"--and the gist of the whole argument is in favour of this assumption--then the sculpture which appeals, indeed, first of all to our perception of beauty, to the delight of the eye, to the wonder and the worship of the instinct or the sense, but which in every possible instance appeals also to far other intuitions and far other sympathies than these, is as absolutely wrong, as demonstrably inferior, as any picture or as any carving which may be so degenerate and so debased as to concern itself with a story or a subject. Assuredly Phidias thought of other things than "arrangements"[34] in marble--as certainly as Æschylus thought of other things than "arrangements" in metre. Nor, I am sorely afraid, can the adored Velasquez be promoted to a seat "at the foot of Fusi-yama." Japanese art is not merely the incomparable achievement of certain harmonies in colour; _it is the negation, the immolation, the annihilation of everything else_. By the code which accepts as the highest of models and of masterpieces the cups and fans and screens with which "the poor world" has been as grievously "pestered" of late years as ever it was in Shakespeare's time "with such waterflies"--"diminutives of nature"--as excited the scorn of his moralizing cynic, Velasquez is as unquestionably condemned as is Raphael or Titian. It is true that this miraculous power of hand (?)[35] makes beautiful for us the deformity of dwarfs, and dignifies the degradation of princes; but that is not the question. It is true, again, that Mr. Whistler's own merest "arrangements" in colour are lovely and effective;[36] but his portraits, to speak of these alone, are liable to the damning and intolerable imputation of possessing not merely other qualities than these, but qualities which actually appeal--I blush to remember and I shudder to record it--which actually appeal to the intelligence[37] and the emotions, to the mind and heart of the spectator. It would be quite useless for Mr. Whistler to protest--if haply he should be so disposed--that he never meant to put study of character and revelation of intellect into his portrait of Mr. Carlyle, or intense pathos of significance and tender depth of expression into the portrait of his own venerable mother. The scandalous fact remains, that he has done so; and in so doing has explicitly violated and implicitly abjured the creed and the canons, the counsels and the catechism of Japan....

[Note 34: _REFLECTION:_

Because the Bard is blind, shall the Painter cease to
see?

]

[Note 35: _REFLECTION:_

Quite hopeless!

]

[Note 36: _REFLECTION:_

Whereby it would seem that, for the Bard, the lovely is
not necessarily "effective."

]

[Note 37: _REFLECTION:_

The "lovely," therefore, confessedly does not appeal to
the intelligence, emotions, mind, and heart of the Bard
even when aided by the "effective."

]

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

Of course I do mean this thing--though most imprudent
was the saying of it!--for this Art truth the Poet
resents with the people.--June 1888.

]

And when Mr. Whistler informs us that "there never was an artistic period," we must reply that the statement, so far as it is true, is the flattest of all possible truisms; for no mortal ever maintained that there ever was a period in which all men were either good artists or good judges of art. But when we pass from the positive to the comparative degree of historic or retrospective criticism, we must ask whether the lecturer means to say that there have not been times when the general standard of taste and judgment, reason and perception, was so much higher than at other times and such periods may justly and accurately be defined as artistic. If he does mean to say this, he is beyond answer and beneath confutation; in other words, he is where an artist of Mr. Whistler's genius and a writer of Mr. Whistler's talents can by no possibility find himself. If he does not mean to say this, what he means to say is exactly as well worth saying, as valuable and as important a piece of information, as the news that Queen Anne is no more, or that two and two are not generally supposed to make five.

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

Je reviens donc de Pontoise!

]

But if the light and glittering bark of this brilliant amateur in the art of letters is not invariably steered with equal dexterity of hand between the Scylla and Charybdis of paradox and platitude, it is impossible that in its course it should not once and again touch upon some point worth notice, if not exploration. Even that miserable animal the "unattached writer" may gratefully and respectfully recognize his accurate apprehension and his felicitous application of well-nigh the most hackneyed verse in all the range of Shakespeare's--which yet is almost invariably misconstrued and misapplied--"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;" and this, as the poet goes on to explain, is that all, with one consent, prefer worthless but showy novelties to precious but familiar possessions. "This one chord that vibrates with all," says Mr. Whistler, who proceeds to cite artistic examples of the lamentable fact, "this one unspoken sympathy that pervades humanity, is--Vulgarity." But the consequence which he proceeds to indicate and to deplore is calculated to strike his readers with a sense of mild if hilarious astonishment. It is that men of sound judgment and pure taste, quick feelings and clear perceptions, most unfortunately and most inexplicably begin to make their voices "heard in the land." Porson, as all the world knows, observed of the Germans of his day that "in Greek" they were "sadly to seek." It is no discredit to Mr. Whistler if this is his case also; but then he would do well to eschew the use of a Greek term lying so far out of the common way as the word "æsthete." Not merely the only accurate meaning, but the only possible meaning, of that word is nothing more, but nothing less, than this--an intelligent, appreciative, quick-witted person; in a word, as the lexicon has it, "one who perceives." The man who is no æsthete stands confessed, by the logic of language and the necessity of the case, as a thick-witted, tasteless, senseless, and impenetrable blockhead. I do not wish to insult Mr. Whistler, but I feel bound to avow my impression that there is no man now living who less deserves the honour of enrolment in such ranks as these--of a seat in the synagogue of the anæsthetic....

... Such abuse of language is possible only to the drivelling desperation of venomous or fangless duncery: it is in higher and graver matters, of wider bearing and of deeper import, that we find it necessary to dispute the apparently serious propositions or assertions of Mr. Whistler. _How far the witty tongue may be thrust into the smiling cheek_ when the lecturer pauses to take breath between these remarkably brief paragraphs it would be certainly indecorous and possibly superfluous to inquire. But his theorem is unquestionably calculated to provoke the loudest and the heartiest mirth that ever acclaimed the advent of Momus or Erycina. For it is this--that [38]"Art and Joy go together," _and that_[39] _tragic art is not art at all_....

[Note 38: _REFLECTION:_

Is not, then, the funeral hymn a gladness to the singer,
if the verse be beautiful?

Certainly the funeral monument, to be worthy the
Nation's sorrow buried beneath it, must first be a joy
to the sculptor who designed it.

The Bard's reasoning is of the People. His Tragedy is
_theirs_. As one of them, the _man_ may weep--yet will
the artist rejoice--for to him is not "A thing of beauty
a joy for ever"?

]

[Note 39: At what point of my "_O'clock_" does Mr.
Swinburne find this last--his own inconsequence?

]

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

Before the marvels of centuries, silence, the only
tribute of the outsider, is by him refused--and the
dignity of ignorance lost in speech.

]

... The laughing Muse of the lecturer, "quam Jocus circumvolat," must have glanced round in expectation of the general appeal, "After that let us take breath." And having done so, they must have remembered that they were not in a serious world; that they were in the fairyland of fans, in the paradise of pipkins, in the limbo of blue china, screens, pots, plates, jars, joss-houses, and all the fortuitous frippery of Fusi-yama.

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

If an æsthete, the Bard is no collector!

]

It is a cruel but an inevitable Nemesis which reduces even a man of real genius, keen-witted and sharp-sighted, to the level of the critic Jobson, to the level of the _dotard and the dunce_, when paradox is discoloured by personality and merriment is distorted by malevolence.(!) No man who really knows the qualities of Mr. Whistler's best work will imagine that he really believes the highest expression of his art to be realized in reproduction of the grin and glare, the smirk and leer, of Japanese womanhood as represented in its professional types of beauty; but to all appearance he would fain persuade us that he does.

In the latter of the two portraits to which I have already referred there is an expression of living character.... This, however, is an exception to the general rule of Mr. Whistler's way of work: an exception, it may be alleged, which proves the rule. A single infraction of the moral code, a single breach of artistic law, suffices to vitiate the position of the preacher. And this is no slight escapade, or casual aberration; it is a full and frank defiance, a deliberate and elaborate denial, hurled right in the face of Japanese jocosity, flung straight in the teeth of the theory which condemns high art, under penalty of being considered intelligent, to remain eternally on the grin.

[Sidenote: _REFLECTION:_

A keen commercial summing up--excused by the "Great
Emperor!"

]

If it be objected that to treat this theorem gravely is "to consider too curiously" the tropes and the phrases of _a jester_ of genius, I have only to answer that it very probably may be so, but that the excuse for such error must be sought in the existence of the genius. A man of genius is scarcely at liberty to choose whether he shall or shall not be considered as a serious figure--one to be acknowledged and respected as an equal or a superior, not applauded and dismissed as _a tumbler or a clown_. And if the better part of Mr. Whistler's work as an artist is to be accepted as the work of a serious and intelligent creature, it would seem incongruous and preposterous to dismiss the more characteristic points of his theory as a lecturer with the chuckle or the shrug of mere amusement or amazement. Moreover, if considered as a joke, a mere joke, and nothing but a joke, this gospel of the grin has hardly matter or meaning enough in it to support so elaborate a structure of paradoxical rhetoric. It must be taken, therefore, as something serious in the main; and if so taken, and read by the light reflected from Mr. Whistler's more characteristically brilliant canvases, it may not improbably recall a certain phrase of Molière's which at once passed into a proverb--"Vous êtes orfèvre, M. Josse." That worthy tradesman, it will be remembered, was of opinion that nothing could be so well calculated to restore a drooping young lady to mental and physical health as the present of a handsome set of jewels. _Mr. Whistler's opinion that there is nothing like leather--of a jovial and Japanese design--savours somewhat of the Oriental cordwainer._

"_Et tu, Brute!_"

Why, O brother! did you not consult with me before printing, in the face of a ribald world, _that you also misunderstand_, and are capable of saying so, with vehemence and repetition.

Have I then left no man on his legs?--and have I shot down the singer in the far off, when I thought him safe at my side?

Cannot the man who wrote _Atalanta_--and the _Ballads_ beautiful,--can he not be content to spend his life with _his_ work, which should be his love,--and has for him no misleading doubt and darkness--that he should so stray about blindly in his brother's flowerbeds and bruise himself!

Is life then so long with him, and _his_ art so short, that he shall dawdle by the way and wander from his path, reducing his giant intellect--garrulous upon matters to him unknown, that the scoffer may rejoice and the Philistine be appeased while he takes up the parable of the mob and proclaims himself their spokesman and fellow-sufferer? O Brother! where is thy sting! O Poet! where is thy victory!

How have I offended! and how shall you in the midst of your poisoned page hurl with impunity the boomerang rebuke? "Paradox is discoloured by personality, and merriment is distorted by malevolence."

Who are you, deserting your Muse, that you should insult my Goddess with familiarity, and the manners of approach common to the reasoners in the marketplace. "Hearken to me," you cry, "and I will point out how this man, who has passed his life in her worship, is a tumbler and a clown of the booths--how he who has produced that which I fain must acknowledge--is a jester in the ring!"

Do we not speak the same language? Are we strangers, then, or, in our Father's house are there so many mansions that you lose your way, my brother, and cannot recognize your kin?

Shall I be brought to the bar by my own blood, and be borne false witness against before the plebeian people? Shall I be made to stultify myself by what I never said--and shall the strength of your testimony turn upon me? "If"--"If Japanese Art is right in confining itself to what can be broidered upon the fan" ... and again ... "that he really believes the highest expression of his art to be realized in reproduction of the grin and glare, the smirk and leer" ... and further ... "the theory which condemns high art, under the penalty of being considered intelligent, to remain eternally on the grin" ... and much more!

"Amateur writer!" Well should I deserve the reproach, had I ventured ever beyond the precincts of my own science--and fatal would have been the exposure, as you, with heedless boldness, have unwittingly proven.

Art tainted with philanthropy--that better Art result!--Poet and Peabody!

You have been misled--you have mistaken the pale demeanour and joined hands for an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual earnestness. For you, these are the serious ones, and, for them, you others are the serious matter. Their joke is their work. For me--why should I refuse myself the grim joy of this grotesque tragedy--and, with them now, you all are my joke!

_Freeing a Last Friend_

Bravo! Bard! and exquisitely written, I suppose, as becomes your state.

[Sidenote: _The World_, June 3, 1888. Letter to Mr.
Swinburne.]

The scientific irrelevancies and solemn popularities, less elaborately embodied, I seem to have met with before--in papers signed by more than one serious and unqualified sage, whose mind also was not narrowed by knowledge.

I have been "personal," you say; and, faith! you prove it!

Thank you, my dear! I have lost a _confrère_; but, then, I have gained an acquaintance--one Algernon Swinburne--"outsider"--Putney.

_An Editor's Anxiety_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 26, 1889.]

It is reported that Mr. Whistler, having received word that a drawing of his had been rejected by the Committee of the Universal Exhibition, arrived yesterday in Paris and withdrew all his remaining works, including an oil painting and six drawings. The French consider that he has been guilty of a breach of good manners. The _Paris_, for instance, points out that, after sending his works to the jury, he should have accepted their judgment, and appealed to the public by other methods.

_Rassurez vous!_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 27, 1889.]

Sir--You are badly informed--a risk you constantly run in your haste for pleasing news.

I have not "withdrawn" my works "from the forthcoming Paris Exhibition."

I transported my pictures from the American department to the British section of the "Exposition Internationale," where I prefer to be represented.

"The French" have nothing, so far, to do with English or American exhibits.

A little paragraph is a dangerous thing.

And I am, Sir,

Chelsea.

_Whistler's Grievance_

_AN ENTRAPPED INTERVIEW._

[Sidenote: _New York Herald_, Paris Edition, Oct. 3,
1889.]

The _Herald_ correspondent saw Mr. Whistler at the Hôtel Suisse, and asked the artist about his affairs with the American Art Jury of the Exhibition.

"I believe the _Herald_ made the statement," said Mr. Whistler, "that I had withdrawn all my etchings and a full-length portrait from the American section. It all came about in this way: In the first place, before the pictures were sent in, I received a note from the American Art Department asking me to contribute some of my work. It was at that time difficult for me to collect many of my works; but I borrowed what I could from different people, and sent in twenty-seven etchings and the portrait."

"You can imagine that a few etchings do not have any effect at all; so I sent what I could get together. Shortly afterwards I received a note saying: 'Sir--Ten of your exhibits have not received the approval of the jury. Will you kindly remove them?'"

"At the bottom of this note was the name 'Hawkins'--General Hawkins, I believe--a cavalry officer, who had charge of the American Art Department of the Exhibition.

"Well! the next day I went to Paris and called at the American headquarters of the Exhibition. I was ushered into the presence of this gentleman, Hawkins, to whom I said:--'I am Mr. Whistler, and I believe this note is from you. I have come to remove my etchings'; but I did not mention that my work was to be transferred to the English Art Section."

"'Ah!' said the gentleman--the officer--'we were very sorry not to have had space enough for all your etchings, but we are glad to have seventeen and the portrait."

"'You are too kind' I said, 'but really I will not trouble you.'"

"Mr. Hawkins was quite embarrassed, and urged me to reconsider my determination, but I withdrew every one of the etchings, and they are now well hung in the English Department."

"I did not mind the fact that my works were criticized, but it was the discourteous manner in which it was done. If the request to me had been made in proper language, and they had simply said:--'Mr. Whistler, we have not space enough for twenty-seven etchings. Will you kindly select those which you prefer, and we shall be glad to have them,' I would have given them the privilege of placing them in the American Section."...

"_Whacking Whistler_"

[Sidenote: _New York Herald_, Paris Edition, Oct. 4.
1889.]

In an interview in yesterday's _Herald_ the eccentric artist, Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, "jumped" in a most emphatic manner upon General Hawkins, Commissioner of the American Art Department at the Exhibition. He objects to the General for being a cavalry officer; refers to him sarcastically as "Hawkins," and declares him ignorant of the most elementary principles alike of art and politeness--all this because he, Whistler, was requested by the Commissioner to remove from the Exhibition premises some ten of his rejected etchings.

In a spirit of fair play a correspondent called upon General Hawkins, giving him an opportunity, if he felt so disposed, of "jumping," in his turn, on his excitable opponent. The General did feel "so disposed," and proceeded, in popular parlance, to "see" Mr. J. McNeill Whistler and "go him one better." In this species of linguistic gymnastics, by the way, the military Commissioner asks no odds of any one. He began by gently remarking that Mr. Whistler, in his published remarks, had soared far out of the domain of strict veracity. This was not bad for a "starter," and was ably supported by the following detailed statement:--

"Mr. Whistler says he received a note from me. That is a mistake. I have never in my life written a line to Mr. Whistler.[40] What he did receive was a circular with my name printed at the bottom. These circulars were sent to all the artists who had pictures refused by the jury, and contained a simple request that such pictures be removed.

[Note 40: The official memory:

"DEAR SIR--I wish by return mail you would send
description for oils; and if you desire to have titles
to etchings printed, you will have to furnish the
necessary material for copy.--Yours faithfully,
RUSH C. HAWKINS,

Commissariat General, Paris, March 29, 1889.
(_Autograph._)

To Mr. Whistler."]

"Our way of doing business was not, it seems, up to Mr. Whistler's standard of politeness, so he got angry and took away, not only the ten rejected etchings, but seventeen others which had been accepted. It is a little singular that among about one hundred and fifty artists who received this circular, Mr. Whistler should have been the only one to discover its latent discourtesy. How great must be Mr. Whistler's capacity for detecting a snub where none exists!"

"In any case, there is not the slightest reason for Mr. Whistler's venting his ire upon me. I had no more to do with either accepting or rejecting his pictures than I had with painting them. What he sent us was judged on its merits by a competent and impartial jury of his peers. If there were ten etchings rejected it only shows that there were ten etchings not worthy of acceptance. A few days after the affair a trio of journalists--not all men either--came to me, demanding that I reverse this 'iniquitous decision,' as they styled it. I told these three prying scribblers in a polite way that if they would kindly attend to their own affairs I would try to attend to mine. In this connection, I may remark that there are in Paris a number of correspondents who ought not to be allowed within gun-shot of a newspaper office."

"The next mis-statement in Mr. Whistler's interview is in regard to the ultimate disposal of his important etchings. His words are:--'Mr. Hawkins was quite embarrassed, and urged me to reconsider my determination, but I withdrew every one of the etchings, and they are now well hung in the English department.'"

"Now, I leave it to any fair-minded person if the plain inference from this statement is not that the whole twenty-seven etchings were accepted by the English department. If not, what in heaven's name is he crowing about? But the truth is that while we rejected only _ten_ of his etchings, the English department rejected _eighteen_ of them, and of the nine accepted only hung two on the line. Had Mr. Whistler been the possessor of a more even temper and a little more common sense, he would have had five or six of his works on the line in the American department, and nearly twice as many on exhibition than is actually the case. Really, I fail to see what he gained by the exchange, unless it was a valuable experience. He says I was embarrassed when I saw him; I fancy he will be embarrassed when he sees these facts in 'cold type.'"

"_Whistler's Grievance_"

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _New York Herald._]

Sir--I beg that you will kindly print immediately these, my regrets, that General Rush Hawkins should have been spurred into unwonted and unbecoming expression by what I myself read with considerable bewilderment in the _New York Herald_, October 3, under the head of "Whistler's Grievance."

I can assure the gallant soldier that I have no grievance.

Had I known that, when--over what takes the place of wine and walnuts in Holland--I remembered lightly the military methods of the jury, I was being "interviewed," I should have adopted as serious a tone as the original farce would admit of; or I might have even refused to be a party at all to the infliction upon your readers of so old and threadbare a story as that of the raid upon the works of art in the American section of the Universal Exhibition.

Your correspondent, I fancy, felt much more warmly, than did I, wrongs that--who knows?--are doubtless rights in the army; and my sympathies, I confess, are completely with the General, who did only, as he complains, his duty in that state of life in which it had pleased God, and the War Department, to call him, when, according to order, he signed that naïvely authoritative note, circular, warrant, or what not--for he did irretrievably fasten his name to it, whether with pen or print, thereby hopelessly making the letter his own. Thus have we responsibility, like greatness, sometimes thrust upon us.

On receipt of the document I came--I saw the commanding officer, who, until now, I fondly trusted, would ever remember me as pleasantly as I do himself--and, knowing despatch in all military matters to be of great importance, I then and there relieved him of the troublesome etchings, and carried off the painting.

It is a sad shock to me to find that the good General speaks of me without affection, and that he evinces even joy when he says with a view to my entire discomfiture:--"While we rejected only ten of his etchings, the English department rejected eighteen of them, and of the nine accepted, only hung two on the line."

Now, he is wrong!--the General is wrong.

The etchings now hanging in the English section--and perfect is their hanging, notwithstanding General Hawkins's flattering anxiety--are the only ones I sent there.

In the haste and enthusiasm of your interviewer, I have, on this point, been misunderstood.

There was moreover here no question of submitting them to a "competent and impartial jury of his peers"--one of whom, by the way, I am informed upon undoubted authority, had never before come upon an "etching" in his hitherto happy and unchequered Western career.

We all knew that the space allotted to the English department was exceedingly limited, and each one refrained from abusing it. Here I would point out again, hoping this time to be clearly understood, that, had the methods employed in the American camp been more civil, if less military, all further difficulties might have been avoided. Had I been properly advised that the room was less than the demand for place, I would, of course, have instantly begged the gentlemen of the jury to choose, from among the number, what etchings they pleased. So the matter would have ended, and you, Sir, would have been without this charming communication!

The pretty embarrassment of General Hawkins on the occasion of my visit, I myself liked, thinking it seemly, and part of the good form of a West Point man, who is taught that a drum-head court martial--and what else in the experience of this finished officer should so fit him for sitting in judgment upon pictures?--should be presided at with grave and softened demeanour.

If I mistook the General's manner, it is another illusion the less.

And I have, Sir,
the honour to be,
Your obedient servant,

Amsterdam, Oct. 6.

_The Art-Critic's Friend_

[Sidenote: _The Scots Observer_, April 5, 1890.]

Mr. Whistler has many things to answer for, and not the least of them is the education of the British Art-Critic. That, at any rate, is the impression left by a little book made up--apparently against the writer's will--of certain of the master's letters and _mots_.... It is useful and pleasant reading; for not only does it prove the painter to have a certain literary talent--of aptness, unexpectedness, above all impertinence--but also it proves him never to have feared the face of art-critical man.... To him the art-critic is nothing if not a person to be educated, with or against the grain; and when he encounters him in the ways of error, he leaps upon him joyously, scalps him in print before the eyes of men, kicks him gaily back into the paths of truth and soberness, and resumes his avocation with that peculiar zest an act of virtue does undoubtedly impart. Indeed, Mr. Whistler, so far from being the critic's enemy, is on the contrary the best friend that tradesman has ever had. For his function is to make him ridiculous....

... Yes, Mr. Whistler is often "rowdy" and unpleasant; in his last combat with Mr. Oscar Wilde--("Oscar, you have been down the area again")--he comes off a palpable second; his treatment of 'Arry dead and "neglected by the parish" goes far to prove that his sense of smell is not so delicate nor so perfectly trained as his sense of sight....

_A Question_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _The Scots Observer_, April 19, 1890.]

Sir--It is, I suppose, to your pleasant satisfaction in "The Critic's Friend" that I owe the early copy of the _Scots Observer_, pointed with proud mark, in the blue pencil of office, whereby the impatient author hastened to indicate the pithy personal paragraphs, that no time should be wasted upon other matter with which the periodical is ballasted.

Exhilarated by the belief that I had been remembered--for vanity's sake let me fancy that you have bestowed upon me your own thought and hand--I plunged forthwith into the underlined article, and read with much amusement your excellent appreciation.

Having forgotten none of your professional manner as art arbiter, may I say that I can picture to myself easily the sad earnestness with which you now point the thick thumb of your editorial refinement in deprecation of my choicer "rowdyism"? And knowing your analytical conscientiousness, I can even understand the humble comfort you take in Oscar's meek superiority; but, for the life of me, I cannot follow your literary intention when you say that my care of "''Arry,' dead and neglected by the parish," goes far to prove that my "sense of smell is not so delicate nor so perfectly trained as" my "sense of sight."

Do you mean that my discovery of the body is the result of a cold in the head? and that, with a finer scent, I should have missed it altogether? or were you only unconsciously remembering and dreamily dipping your pen into the ink of my former description of "'Arry's" chronic catarrh? In any case, I am charmed with what I have just read, and only regret that the ridiculous "Romeike" has not hitherto sent me your agreeable literature.--Also I am, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

_The End of the Piece_

Sir--I beg to draw your attention to the contents of your letter to the _Scots Observer_, dated April 12th, in which you state that you "regret the ridiculous Romeike has not hitherto sent me your agreeable literature."

This statement, had it been true, was spiteful and injurious, but being untrue (entirely) it becomes malicious, and I must ask you at once to apologise.

And at the same time to draw your attention to the fact that we have supplied you with 807 cuttings.

We have written to the _Scots Observer_ for an ample apology, or the matter will be placed in our solicitor's hands, and we demand the same of you.

Yours obediently,
ROMEIKE & CURTICE.
J. MCN. WHISTLER, Esq.
April 25, 1890.

_Exit the Prompter_

Sir--If it be not actionable, permit me to say that you _really are delightful_!!

_Naïveté_, like yours, I have never met--even in my long experience with all those, some of whose "agreeable literature" may be, I suppose, in the 807 cuttings you charge me for.

Who, in Heaven's name, ever dreamed of you as an actual person?--or one whom one would mean to insult?

My good Sir, no such intention--believe me--did I, in my wildest of moments, ever entertain.

_Your_ scalp--if you have such a thing--is safe enough!--and I even think--however great my willingness to assist you--could not possibly appear in the forthcoming Edition.

To Mr. ROMEIKE,
April 25.

_L'Envoi_

When the Chairman, in a singularly brilliant and felicitous speech led up to the toast of the evening, Mr. Whistler rose to his feet.

[Sidenote: _Sunday Times_, May 5, 1889.]

[Sidenote: Report of a reply to the toast of the evening
at the complimentary dinner given to Mr. Whistler,
London, May 1, 1889.]

"You must feel that, for me," said Mr. Whistler, "it is no easy task to reply under conditions of which I have so little habit. We are all even too conscious that mine has hitherto, I fear, been the gentle answer that sometimes turneth not away wrath."

"Gentlemen," said he, "this is an age of rapid results, when remedies insist upon their diseases, that science shall triumph and no time be lost; and so have we also rewards that bring with them their own virtue. It would ill become me to question my fitness for the position it has pleased this distinguished company to thrust upon me."

"It has before now been borne in upon me, that in surroundings of antagonism, I may have wrapped myself, for protection, in a species of misunderstanding--as that other traveller drew closer about him the folds of his cloak the more bitterly the winds and the storm assailed him on his way. But, as with him, when the sun shone upon him in his path, his cloak fell from his shoulders, so I, in the warm glow of your friendship, throw from me all former disguise, and, making no further attempt to hide my true feeling, disclose to you my deep emotion at such unwonted testimony of affection and faith."

_Auto-Biographical_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, July 28, 1891.]

Sir,--May I request that you allow me to make known, through your influential paper, the fact that the canvas, now shown as a completed work of mine, at Messrs. Dowdeswell's, representing three draped figures in a conservatory, is a painting long ago barely begun, and thrown aside for destruction?

Also I am in no way responsible for the taste of the frame with its astonishments of plush! and varied gildings.

I think it not only just to myself to make this statement, but right that the public should be warned against the possible purchase of a picture in no way representative, and, in its actual condition, absolutely worthless.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

_Chelsea, July 27, 1891._

_Mr. Whistler "had on his own Toast"_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Aug. 1, 1891.]

Sir,--I have read with interest Mr. Whistler's letter in your issue of July 28. I happened to be at Messrs. Dowdeswell's galleries the other day and saw the picture he refers to. It was not on public exhibition, but was in one of their private rooms, and was brought out for my inspection _à propos_ of a conversation we were having. Now, so far from Messrs. Dowdeswell showing it as a "completed work," they distinctly spoke of it as unfinished; nor can I imagine any one acquainted with Mr. Whistler's works speaking of any of them as "completed!" In "L'Envoi" of the catalogue of his exhibition held at Messrs. Dowdeswell's a short time ago I find the following paragraph from his pen:--"The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the brow--suggests no effort--and _is finished from its beginning_." The only inference possible is either that Mr. Whistler is not a master, or that the work is finished! He has, however, spent what time he could spare from his literary labours in endeavouring to induce the world to believe that the slightest scratch from his pen is worthy to rank with "Las Lanzas," and I am therefore surprised to learn that he has altered his opinion. Still, I quite agree with him when he tells us that some of his work is "absolutely worthless!"--I am, sir, more in sorrow than in anger, your obedient servant,

W. C.
_July 31, 1891._

_What "Mr. Whistler had on his own Toast"_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, Aug. 4, 1891.]

Sir,--My letter should have met with no reply at all. It was a statement--authoritative and unanswerable, if there ever were one.

Because of the attention drawn to it, in the press, I felt called upon to advise the Public that one of _my own works_ is condemned _by myself_. Final this, one would fancy!

That the accidental owners of the Gallery should introduce themselves to the situation, is of a most marked irrelevancy. They come in _comme un cheveu sur la soupe_, to be removed at once.

The dealer's business is to buy and sell. In the course of such traffic, these same busy picture bodies, without consulting me, put upon the market a painting that I, the author, intended to efface--and, thanks to your courtesy, I have been enabled to say so effectually in your journal.

All along have I carefully destroyed plates, torn up proofs, and burned canvases, that the truth of the quoted word shall prevail, and that the future collector shall be spared the mortification of cataloguing his pet mistakes.

To destroy, is to remain.

What is commercial irritation beside a clean canvas?

What is a gentlemanly firm in Bond Street beside Eternity?--I am, sir, your obedient servant,

_Chelsea, August 1, 1891._

_NOCTURNES, MARINES,
AND
CHEVALET PIECES_

_A CATALOGUE_

_SMALL COLLECTION
KINDLY LENT
THEIR OWNERS_

"_THE VOICE OF A PEOPLE_"

"I do not know when so much amusement has been afforded to the British public as by Mr. Whistler's pictures."

_Speech of the Attorney-General of England.
Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._

1.--NOCTURNE.

GREY AND SILVER--CHELSEA EMBANKMENT--WINTER.

_Lent by F. G. Orchar, Esq._

"With the exception, perhaps, of one of Mr. Whistler's meaningless canvases, there is nothing that is actually provocative of undue mirth or ridicule."

_City Press._

"In some of the Nocturnes the absence, not only of definition, but of gradation, would point to the conclusion that they are but engaging sketches. In them we look in vain for all the delicate differences of light and hue which the scenes depicted present."

_F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_

2.--SYMPHONY IN WHITE, No. III.

_Lent by Louis Huth, Esq._

"It is not precisely a symphony in white--one lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on a white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh colour of the complexions."

_P. G. Hamerton, "Saturday Review."_

"Mr. Whistler appears as eccentrically as ever.... Art is not served by freaks of resentment.... We hold him deeply to blame that these figures are badly drawn.

"... 'Taste,' which is mind working in Art, would, even if it could at all conceive them, utterly reject the vulgarities of Mr. Whistler with regard to form, and never be content with what suffices him in composition."--_Athenæum._

"Painting, or art generally, as such, with all its technicalities, difficulties, and particular ends, is nothing but a noble and expressive language, invaluable as the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing."

_John Ruskin, Esq., Art Professor,
"Modern Painters."_

3.--CHELSEA IN ICE.

_Lent by Madame Venturi._

"We are not sure but that it would be something like insult to our readers to say more about these 'things.' They must surely be meant in jest; but whether the public have chiefly to thank Mr. Whistler or the Managers of the Grosvenor Gallery for playing off on them this sorry joke we do not know, nor greatly care. _Meliora canamus!_"--_Knowledge._

4.--NOCTURNE.

BLUE AND GOLD--OLD BATTERSEA BRIDGE.

_Lent by Robert H. C. Harrison, Esq._

"His Nocturne in Blue and Gold, No. 3, might have been called, with a similar confusion of terms: A Farce in Moonshine, with half-a-dozen dots."--_Life._

"The picture representing a night scene on Battersea Bridge has no composition and detail. A day, or a day and a half, seems a reasonable time within which to paint it. It shows no finish--it is simply a sketch."

_Mr. Jones, R.A.--Evidence in Court,
Nov. 16, 1878._

5.--THE LANGE LEIZEN--OF THE SIX MARKS.

PURPLE AND ROSE.

_Lent by J. Leathart._

"Mr. Whistler paints subjects sadly below the merit of his pencil."--_London Review._

"A worse specimen of humanity than could be found on the oldest piece of china in existence."

_Reader._

"The hideous forms we find in his Chinese vase painteress ... an ostentatious slovenliness of execution ... objects as much out of perspective as the great blue vase in the foreground, _&c._ ... _&c._...

"It is Mr. Whistler's way to choose people and things for painting which other painters would turn from, and to combine these oddly chosen materials as no other painter would choose to combine them. He should learn that eccentricity is not originality, but the caricature of it."--_Times._

6.--NOCTURNE.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE--SNOW.

_Lent by Albert Moore, Esq._

"The word 'impressionist' has come to have a bad meaning in art. Visions of Whistler come before you when you hear it. Such visions are not of the best possible augury, for who loves a nightmare?"

_Oracle._

"Like the landscape art of Japan, they are harmonious decorations, and a dozen or so of such engaging sketches placed in the upper panels of a lofty apartment would afford a justifiable and welcome alternative even to noble tapestries or Morris wallpapers."--_F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."_

7.--NOCTURNE--BLACK AND GOLD.

THE FIRE WHEEL.

"Mr. Whistler has 'a sweet little isle of his own' in the shape of an ample allowance of wall space all to himself for the display of his six most noticeable works: 'Nocturnes' in black and gold, in blue and silver, 'Arrangements' in black and brown, and 'Harmonies' in amber and black.

"These weird productions--enigmas sometimes so occult that OEdipus might be puzzled to solve them--need much subtle explanation."--_Daily Telegraph._

8.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND BROWN.

THE FUR JACKET.

"Mr. Whistler has whole-length portraits, or rather the shadows of people, shapes suggestive of good examples of portraiture _when completed_. They are exhibited to illustrate a theory peculiar to the artist. One is entitled An Arrangement in 'Black and Brown.'"--_Daily Telegraph._

"Mr. Whistler is anything but a robust and balanced genius."--_Times._

"Whistler, with three portraits which he is pleased to call 'Arrangements,' and which look like ghosts."

_Truth._

"Some figure pieces, which this artist exhibits as 'harmonies' in this, that, or the other, being, as they are, mere rubs-in of colour, have no claim to be regarded as pictures."--_Scotsman._

"We are threatened with a Whistler exhibition. The periodical inflictions with which this gentleman tries the patience of a long-suffering public generally take some fantastic form to attract attention. It is an evidence of the painter's worldly acuteness that this should be so, for public attention may be drawn by such outbursts of eccentricity to such work as would never impress sensible people on its bare merit."--_Oracle._

9.--NOCTURNE.

BLUE AND SILVER.

_Lent by Mrs. Leyland._

"It seems to us a pity that an artist of Mr. Whistler's known ability should exhibit such an extraordinary collection of pictile nightmares."--_Society._

"MR. BOWEN: 'Do you consider detail and composition essential to a work of art?'

"MR. JONES: 'Most certainly I do.'

"MR. BOWEN: 'Then what detail and composition do you find in this "Nocturne"?'

"MR. JONES: 'Absolutely none.'

"MR. BOWEN: 'Do you think two hundred guineas a large price for that picture?'

"MR. JONES: 'Yes, when you think of the amount of earnest work done for a smaller sum.'"

_Evidence of Mr. Jones, R.A.,
Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._

10.--NOCTURNE.

IN BLACK AND GOLD--THE FALLING ROCKET.

"A dark bluish surface, with dots on it, and the faintest adumbrations of shape under the darkness, is gravely called a Nocturne in Black and Gold."

_Knowledge._

"His Nocturne, black and gold, 'The Falling Rocket,' shows such wilful and headlong perversity that one is almost disposed to despair of an artist who, in a sane moment [_sic_], could send such a daub to any exhibition."--_Telegraph._

"For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now, but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face."

_Professor John Ruskin,
July 2, 1877._

"The 'Nocturne in black and gold' is not a serious work to me."

_Mr. Firth, R.A.--Evidence at Westminster,
Nov. 16, 1878._

"The 'Nocturne in black and gold,' I do not think a serious work of art."

_The Art Critic of the "Times."
Evidence at Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._

"The Nocturne in black and gold has not the merit of the other two pictures, and it would be impossible to call it a serious work of art. Mr. Whistler's picture is only one of the thousand failures to paint night. The picture is not worth two hundred guineas."

_Evidence of Mr. Jones, R.A.
Westminster, Nov. 16, 1878._

11.--NOCTURNE--OPAL AND SILVER.

_Lent by H. Theobald, Esq._

"With what feelings must we regard the mad new style, the Nocturnes in 'Blue and Silver,' the Harmonies in Flesh-colour and Pink, the Notes in Blue and Opal."--_Knowledge._

"The blue and black smudges which purport to depict the 'Thames at Night.'"--_Life._

12.--HARMONY IN GREEN AND ROSE.

THE MUSIC ROOM.

_Lent by Madame Reveillon._