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RM2AJJMDK–Whistler as I knew him . ng ofthe room was arranged in accordance with thepictures; so also were the hangings, which werefestooned in beautiful lines around the gallery. ThePrivate View card was the object of much care andconsideration. Such details as the cut of the letter-ing and the placing of the type were all-important.Whistler would actually go to the length of traininga member of the printing firm especially to put atouch of colour on the butterfly by hand. At oneof the exhibitions there was a picture called TheBlue Girl, which occupied a central position onone of the walls. At the last
RM2AJM2DA–Whistler as I knew him . S, ^ THE MISER. MASTER AND FOLLOWERS The Whistler Followers were privileged people;but among them there were only two genuine pupils.These were AValter Sickert and myself. The followersnever met under the Masters eye; but they formedthemselves into a society whose main object was totight his battles. Individually we meant to fight forourselves, too; but that was a bold idea, and we neverlet the Master know it. We were a little clique ofthe art world, attracted together in the first instanceby artistic sympathies. At the most we never num-bered a dozen. We were painters
RM2AJM232–Whistler as I knew him . ties. Still, nodoubt, enthusiasm did us a world of good; after all,it is a law of progress to march through mistakes toachievement. It was the peculiarity of the schoolthat they were always on the verge of some greatdiscovery in the matter of method, or of pigment, orof manipulation,— touching, as it were, some hithertounknown truth, which was to revolutionise all the oldcanons of art. If you met one of us round a streetcorner, he would be excited and mysterious. Ah,my dear fellow, he would exclaim, I have some-thing to tell you. Im reducing nature to a system.Im getti
RM2AJM3EF–Whistler as I knew him . ngs at the music halls andpantomimes amused him just as if he were a child. Always, after a theatre, we went to the HogarthClub, where Whistler gathered all the men about himby the fascination of his talk. Speaking simply ina quiet way to myself, and without once lookinground, Whistler would draw every man in that club tohis side, — smart young men about town, old fogies,retired soldiers who had been dozing in arm-chairs.The Master himself appeared unconscious: I aloneknew that he had wilfully attracted them. He hyp-notised those men, every one of them; and it wasinter
RM2AJJDMW–Whistler as I knew him . t? — Menpes, is thisthe sort of life you live in the bush ? When I saw youin your knickerbockers yesterday, I thought you weregoing to be active and give us a touch of bush life.He would continue hurling taunt after taunt at ourheads until he had got us up and dressed and in thedining room. There we would find Whistler dainty,sparkling, — one might almost say gemlike, — andready for a day of incident. I can see him now ashe stood there, that dapper figure no longer in thelong flowing skirts of town, but in a very short jauntyjacket — almost a tomtit scheme, a straw hat
RM2AJM89G–Whistler as I knew him . tler so muchas this exaggeration, nothing harmed the livingWhistler so much as the foolish adulation of thesycophants by whom he was surrounded. His friendsoften upset him in his work by gush. A man whowas a friend would turn up, or generally speaking itwould be a woman, and he or she would begin totalk about a picture Whistler had only just begun,and say, Oh, that is superb! That is amazing!Jimmy, dont touch that picture again. And Whis-tler would answer, Well, I guess it is rather good,and leave it without another stroke. A picture hasoften been thus arrested by a so
RM2AJJT1F–Whistler as I knew him . o, where he explained his plan for cleansing theSociety. I, as a member of the Hanging Committee,was instructed to be ruthless in rejecting pictures.He impressed upon me the necessity of saying, Out,damned spot! Never weary, Menpes, of say-ing Out. If you are uncertain for a moment,say Out. You need never be afraid of rejectinga masterpiece. We want clean spaces round ourpictures. We want them to be seen. The BritishArtists must cease to be a shop. And out theywent, one after the other, until very few and selectwere the pictures reserved for the exhibition. Butthese fe
RM2AJKAB7–Whistler as I knew him . level. That is why most of Whistlers pic-tures appear to be what some people call flat. I noticed that when working from a half tone toa shadow he always used raw sienna, and, as a medium,turpentine and linseed oil. He used very flowingcolour; and even the most solid part of a picture,such as the whites in linen, were sufficiently trans-parent for the ground underneath to show. Whistlernever loaded his pictures with pigment, but workedin thin films of colour. He was not difficult to please in so far as posingwas concerned. Almost any position a model tookseemed to him
RM2AJJYJ5–Whistler as I knew him . metimes I have persuaded him to talk and giveme reasons for the changes in his methods, and haveasked him to tell me how he produced certain effects.For printing in those days became a passion with me.It had possession of me, and I was never weary ofquestioning Whistler with regard to his methods.We would look, perhaps, at some proofs of the earlyFrench set of 1858 and 1859 — proofs which had inall probability been printed by Delatre. They mightbe proofs from the plate called The Kitchen.Whistler would look at them, and say: Well, well,well! Not bad, not bad! But I hav
RM2AJK7MJ–Whistler as I knew him . his one piece of flesh appealed toWhistler. The rest of the portrait he would barelylook at. Hes got it this time, you would hear himmutter; but he does not understand blacks. From room to room we went, not studying anyparticular school, but just picking out a picture hereand a picture there, as it appealed to the Master. Iwas anxious to hear his opinion upon Turner, and,almost unconsciously perhaps, directed his steps tothe room where the famous work was collected.Whistler put on his eyeglass, and looked very longand carefully at one or two pictures without saying awo
RM2AJK6TY–Whistler as I knew him . dm A SKETCH FROM BILLINGSGATESecond state.. WYCH STREET Butterfly in pencil within plate mark, and signedWhistler ist proof.
RM2AJJGG4–Whistler as I knew him . ngthing happened. Whistler, together with a pupilwho acted as assistant, set to work with great pailsof Antwerp blue, and books upon books of gold leaf,to smother the Spanish leather all over. At momentsthey worked so frantically that it seemed to be raininggold. Their hair became gilded; gold settled on theirfaces and on their lungs; they choked, and sneezed,and could scarcely breathe. Whistler put blue painton the walls, quite obliterating the leather; and intothe paint he crammed gold, and afterward more blue,and so on, until in the end the room was one gloriousshim
RM2AJJCJK–Whistler as I knew him . the fisher-men, and it was interesting to see Whistler copyingthe tactics of the follower, talking of sea and boats,and gracefully playing round the subject of fish; butsomehow or other the St. Ives fisher folk never gavehim fish, and Whistler was far too proud to ask. Itmust be given, he would say, of their own free will.What marvellous finesse, and tact, and cunning, andhumour, I have heard wasted on those coarse fisher-men ! What veiled entreaties and flatteries! Yetnever a mackerel did his fluency bring forth, nevera sprat. Many a time I have felt sorry for the Mas
RM2AJKYY0–Whistler as I knew him . tched a plate regularly every night atdinner. At my house he etched a plate of a cele-brated lady artist. In the small hours of the morn-ing I took it upstairs and printed a proof. I placedthe proof in a frame, so that Ave might the betterjudge of its merit. It was framed in the usual way,and, as I remembered afterwards, it had been etchedupright; but one could not be too particular, and theFollower never even noticed the mistake. He lookedat his work in a satisfied, admiring way, and said,Amazing! We all echoed him — feebly, I mustadmit. Then he turned to us, and said
RM2AJM109–Whistler as I knew him . MR. MANN. MASTER AND FOLLOWERS 23 which I would draw in one broad sweep. If bychance I did not see the whole of the bridge, I wouldnot put it in. In this Avay the picture must neces-sarily be a perfect thing from start to finish. Evenif one were to be arrested in the middle of it, it wouldstill be a fine and complete picture. That is the only instance that I can remember ofWhistler sitting down and actually explaining any-thing to the pupils; but, of course, in a thousandsubtle ways we benefited by his presence. In fact,as artists we owed our existence entirely to theM
RM2AJJPYX–Whistler as I knew him . u know, you people are notwell! You remind me of a ship-load of passengersliving on an antiquated boat which has been anchoredto a rock for many years. Suddenly this old tub,which hitherto has been disabled and incapable ofputting out to sea, to face the storm and stress of thewaves, is boarded by a pirate. (I am the pirate.) Hepatches up the ship and makes her not only weather-tight, but a perfect vessel, and boldly puts out, runningdown less ably captained ships, and bearing a streamof wreckage in her wake. But lo and behold! hertriumphant passage is stopped, and by
RM2AJM4EA–Whistler as I knew him . d enter a gallery, and say, Ha, ha!amazing! and then sail out. Afterwards he wouldturn to me, and say, You know, that does a lot ofgood: its like the important bank manager whovisits each department every morning and coughsloudly to show his authority. Sometimes we visited a dealer who owed himmoney, and Whistler would receive a cheque. Oncethe cheque was not handed to him in what he thoughta sufficiently dignified manner, and he said to thedealer: This is careless of you. You push thischeque toward me, and you do not realise what aprivilege it is to be able to hand it
RM2AJKFBK–Whistler as I knew him . SEATED GIRLUnique state. f *. THE MAN 57 wise injured the friendship between them. Amongrobbers this gentleman was an artist, a very prince ofbanditti and a great connoisseur. I have good reasonto believe that he was the originator of the craze forblue-and-white china. Certainly he was a born col-lector. He gathered pink coral, and in three weekshis collection became the finest in London. If a manwas placed in possession of his house, he dressed himup and made him wait at table. The Master very seldom encouraged any of us Fol-lowers ; but on the rare occasions when he
RM2AJK0CY–Whistler as I knew him . - L IRVING AS PHILIP OF SPAIN With dry point added, undescribed in WedmoresCatalogue.. THE ETCHER 93 the ink which cannot be imitated. It is of a texturewhich only age can produce. The texture of paperchanges considerably with age. As years go on alltraces of size disappear; yet you feel that at onetime it must have contained a considerable quantity.It has been proved over and over again by practicalexperiment that for etchings old paper is preferable tonew. Rembrandt and all the great etchers have foundit so. Whistler spent endless time searching for it.Often he and
RM2AJM8GR–Whistler as I knew him . INTRODUCTORY WHISTLER THE EXAGGERATED The cry of Whistlers life was, Save me from myfriends! If only he could hear them now, the cry, Ifeel sure, would be still more terrible. The under-studies fall sadly short. His friends are foolishly,though no doubt all unwittingly, raising up a cloudbehind which the real Whistler is obscured, and I feelthat it is only fair to his memory to try and cleansethe atmosphere that is gathering round about him.For example, how ridiculous are the letters which onereads nowadays in the papers concerning Whistlersaversion from the Royal Acad
RM2AJJY2N–Whistler as I knew him . e of thecopper! Such a result is only possible by leavingfilms of tone upon the plate. In this book I reproduce, in a few instances, aseries of proofs from one plate in order to show thethoroughness of the Master, and to demonstrate hismethod of correcting a plate. A notable example ofthis will be found in the etching of Maud standing.There are five different proofs from the one plate. Inthe first, Maud wears a fichu of pleated stuff; in thesecond the fichu is charcoaled out, and a fur tippetindicated ; in the third there is a tone over the tippet;in the fourth he does
RM2AJJCTG–Whistler as I knew him . u to turn your attention to this little matterof the coffee. It is not to be a large breakfast cup,mark you, of coarse porcelain, but a small, dainty cupof coffee. Madam, do you think yon can do this?The old lady, thoroughly demoralised by Whistlersflow of language, mumbled something in answer, andleft the room as hastily as possible. Now, saidWhistler, I think she realises better our position,and that we have certain habits of what is fit andproper. After breakfast the Master would saunter out intothe open with his long cane and his little pochade box,which last it wa
RM2AJKTXH–Whistler as I knew him . ^^v^LdfiPHBBv THE MAN AMSTERDAMEtched from the Tolhuis, early state.. THE MAN Whistler was essentially a purist, both as man andas worker. As a man he was sadly misunderstood bythe masses. His nature was combative, and his longand brilliant career was a continuous tight. He re-vealed himself only to the few, and even that smallinner circle, of whom I was one of the most devoted,saw the real man but seldom. On the rare occasionsWhistler could be gentle, sweet, sympathetic, almostfeminine, so lovable was he; and he was, as I said,essentially a purist. No one has ever hea
RM2AJM1T7–Whistler as I knew him . UNDER OLD BATTERSEA BRIDGEWith boat in charcoal, first state.. MASTER AND FOLLOWERS 21 it was a face, the literary art came in; and you hadbetter give it a cup of tea, or pull its nose. In the end we swept away all faces. Features, wefelt, were unnecessary. A broad sweep of flesh tonesufficed for a portrait. We saw no difference betweena face and a peach or a peach and a coal-scuttle. Then we began to realise that nature was very fair,and that if you got into a coal-cellar and looked throughthe chink of a door you saw her much more truly thanin any other way. For some
RM2AJKW6W–Whistler as I knew him . CHELSEA WHARF. ^^v^LdfiPHBBv THE MAN AMSTERDAMEtched from the Tolhuis, early state.
RM2AJM6FA–Whistler as I knew him . ips will be takenliterally. If Boswell had spent his time exaggeratingDoctor Johnson, we should never have had the mag-nificent picture of him that we have in the wonderfulbiography. It was because he seized upon the greatqualities of the man that we have so true a concep-tion of Johnsons character. Anyone reading in The xxvi WHISTLER AS I KNEW HIM Gentle Art Whistlers attack on Swinburne wouldconceive a wrong idea of what really occurred. Swin-burne would appear as a bitter enemy; whereas he wasat that time Whistlers greatest friend. Swinburnedid not want to write tha
RM2AJJAYM–Whistler as I knew him . anold record of an address from Charles I, who wasstaying at Oxford Castle then, at the beginning of thegreat civil war. I had happened upon this by acci-dent, and it impressed me very much; for I realisedthen as I never had before how these old parishchurches of ours buried away beneath the green treesclose by the sounding ocean are veritable storehousesof the history of the British nation. This was all sen-timental, and when I returned to the Whistlerianatmosphere my enthusiasm was so keen that I actu-ally began to tell Whistler of the experience. Hegazed at me for a
RM2AJKK3R–Whistler as I knew him . MAUDEWith fur tippet indicated in wash.. MAUDE Trial proof, with light tippet.
RM2AJKTG7–Whistler as I knew him . thus aninstrument in the carrying out of a masterpiece, apicture by the Master? The clipping completed,Whistler waved the operators imperiously on one side,and we noticed for a while the back view of this dap-per little figure surveying himself in the glass, step-ping now backward, now forward. Suddenly, to theintense surprise of the bystanders, he put his headinto a basin of water, and then, half drying his hair,shook it into matted wet curls. With a comb he care-fully picked out the white lock, a tuft of hair justabove his forehead, wrapped it in a towel, and walkeda
RM2AJKXNP–Whistler as I knew him . nard dogs.The old man then told us that his secret was fric-tion. At twenty-one he had been given over as incur-ably consumptive; but by chance he had been led todiscover the immense curative force of friction, andthe best mode of employing it. He had begun witha babys brush, rubbing himself from the head to thetoes, and from the toes to the head, and had gone ongradually increasing the hardness of his brushes untilhe had arrived at steel; and was now, at eighty, usingthe hardest brush that could be manufactured. Headvised us to do the same, and assured us that weshoul
RM2AJK5K3–Whistler as I knew him . he made afoolish bet that he could go out at once and producepastels which would be as fine as, if not finer than,those of the Master. Whistler accepted the challenge;and the man went out and brought back, with greatassurance and in a surprisingly short space of time, aseries of pastels on brown paper which he consideredto be as fine as, if not finer than, those of the Master.He himself unblushingly asserted that he consideredthe drawing to be cleaner and crisper, and the colourfiner, than Whistlers. When the work of the twoartists was laid side by side and submitted t
RM2AJJHTM–Whistler as I knew him . ell and Mr. Ernest Brown of the FineArts Society fought for Whistler in those early days,when his work was misunderstood and undervalued.They believed in him always, and were ever ready tohelp him and save him pain. For example, overtwenty sets of Whistlers etchings printed by a pro-fessional printer were brought round to the Dowdes-well galleries for him to look over. He was notsatisfied with them, and had not decided whether theyshould be passed. I begged him to destroy the proofsand print the plates himself, and Dowdeswell withouta moments hesitation seconded my pet
RM2AJK39P–Whistler as I knew him . ur endeavour-ing to procure a true point on his needle, one thatwould not tear the copper. And then his method ofbiting in a plate was totally different from that ofanyone else. He used nitric acid. There was oneperiod, to be sure, when he used hydrochloric; but itdid not last for long. The nitric, he found, gave aslightly rougher line, fuller in colour. Then, Whistlernever dipped a plate into an acid bath in the usualmanner. He poured the acid upon the surfaceof the copper, and played it about by means of afeather, for all the world as if he were at work on ablack-and
RM2AJKDWB–Whistler as I knew him . ief must be had. Theauthorities search the list. They find nothing in theAs. They come to the Bs. Buller. Buller, now:what has Buller done? They refer back, and findthat when Buller was at Eton he fought a butcherboy and licked him. Ha! ha! good muscle, andWhistler, in his dainty way, struck with his canehis forearm, — muscle, muscle. This man had mus-cle; we English want muscle; so out goes Buller,the muscle man, without any regard to his fitnessfor the post, or to his local knowledge. That isthe way, according to Whistler, that the British man-age everything. He was
RM2AJK6BE–Whistler as I knew him . WYCH STREET Butterfly in pencil within plate mark, and signedWhistler ist proof.. THE PAINTER 81 Come and look at the paintings of a man who was atrue workman. So saying, he led me straight to aCanaletto. Now, he said, here is the man whowas absolute master of his materials. In this workyou will find no uncertainty. He talked of hisdrawing and of the crisp, clean way in which thetones were put on. Do you know, he said ear-nestly and credulously, there are people who main-tain that the figures in pictures of Canaletto werepainted by another man ? Now, isnt that absurd ?
RM2AJKPB4–Whistler as I knew him . faint echoes, Ha, ha! amazing!Well, sir, he said, excuse yourself. I found itdifficult, for I earnestly felt that from his standpointthere really was no excuse for my conduct. I coulddiscover nothing with which I could plead extenuat-ing circumstances. At the same time, filled withremorse and shame though I was, I could not resisttelling him that I had met, in Japan, another master. What! screamed Whistler. How dare you callthis Japanese a master on your own responsibility?Give me your reasons. What do you mean by it?Then and there, in the Hogarth Club before Whistlera
RM2AJM5E4–Whistler as I knew him . er fromthe decorative standpoint, he would say, Not bad,Menpes, eh? This was, perhaps, a very soiled andgrubby little person indeed. But Whistler wouldtake her kindly by the hand and ask her where shelived; and the three of us would trot along to askthe mother if she might sit, the child, with itsupturned flowerlike though dirty face, gazing withperfect confidence at Whistler. And the Masterwould talk to the gutter-snipe in a charmingly inti-mate way about his work and aspirations. Nowwe are going to do great things together, he wouldsay, and the little dirty-faced chi
RM2AJK860–Whistler as I knew him . y, in a trusting way, complied, andsent it to him. For years she wrote innumerableletters begging Whistler to send back her picture;but still it remained in the studio being cared for.He showed me the last letter he received, a charm-ingly sympathetic note, in which the lady said, Ican live no longer without my beautiful picture, and Iam sending to have it taken away.— Isnt it appall-ing? he cried. And she is presumably a womanof the world and of great habits! I saw nothingappalling about it; but I murmured, Extraordinary,thinking that that would more or less cover the
RM2AJK2M3–Whistler as I knew him . reacly. And hereI should like to warn the collector against these pro-fessionally printed proofs — the shiny, brown, andvulgar vellum proofs which, now that the Master hasgone, will probably come on the market. I shouldlike to impress upon him that plates so printed ceaseto be the Avork of the Master, and are therefore value-less from the collectors standpoint. My only prayeris that the plates may be destroyed, or presented toa museum, and that the professional printer willnever be allowed to touch them. After examiningthese proofs, Whistler turned to me and said, Menp
RM2AJK5DY–Whistler as I knew him . 11/ V? o- / Si THE ETCHER THE THAMES TOWARDS ERITH. FROM PICKLED-HERRING STAIRSTrial proof, without dry point.
RM2AJJKY4–Whistler as I knew him . n, he gave us a little dinner at the ArtsClub, — Walter Dowdeswell, who was a most sincereand enthusiastic admirer of the Master, myself, andanother. We were gathered for the purpose ofpricing the pictures, and we drank a wine of which Ihave never known the name. All I remember isthat it was cheap, sparkling, and not champagne; itwas, I think, what is commonly known as artistswine. Ill-natured people who were not of the partywhispered gooseberry; but that suggestion, I feelsure, was due to the promptings of envy. At anyrate, its stimulating effect upon us was great. Af
RM2AJKNPB–Whistler as I knew him . erything, save his intense interestand desire to hear more of the Japanese painter whoalso was a master. The feeble followers he dismissed.Treating me as a friend and pupil once more, Whistlertook me by the arm, and Ave walked home together tothe Vale. We sat up talking until the small hoursof the morning; or rather I talked, for once, andWhistler sat drinking in every word. I describedKyosais methods in detail, even to the mixing ofhis pigment and the preparing of his silk panels, forWhistler in some ways was a faddist and revelled indetail. When he was bidding me goo
RM2AJJNCC–Whistler as I knew him . THE ONE-MAN SHOW THE BALCONY ^- ! it I i m . Iff iLJ— 4K , -,n M; ,, -(./•),. ?1P GARDEN
RM2AJJK9K–Whistler as I knew him . L^A j S^m Sfe THE SMITHY. THE ONE-MAN SHOW 119 tier put on his eyeglass, and surveyed him critically.After more sipping I suggested £50. The Masterreceived the remark quite calmly. He seemed nowto be indifferent, and left all discussion to his follow-ers. But the colder he grew, the more enthusiastic wewaxed, until at last Dowdeswell said, in a burst ofenthusiasm, Well, if the public doesnt care to give£60 for the picture, far better would it be to livewith it. — Quite right, Walter, said Whistler, ap-provingly, quite right. I see you have appreciation.It is, as you s
RM2AJJJFJ–Whistler as I knew him . inedgeways. The first Press man, a very insignificant-lookingperson, arrived at about half-past ten or eleven.Whistler was standing in the middle of the room sur-rounded by his marvellous exhibition of flesh colourand grey. The little man drifted into the gallery, and,taking Whistler for one of the attendants, asked himif he would kindly show him the way to Mr. Whistlersexhibition of pictures. He evidently imagined him-self to be in the entrance to the gallery. Coming uphastily at that moment, Mr. Dowdeswell drew thelittle man on one side, and explained to him that thi
RM2AJKR7A–Whistler as I knew him . SPEKE HALLEtched figure touched with wash.. **(? J SPEKE HALLEtched figure completed with monogram.
RM2AJKEHD–Whistler as I knew him . THE DESKTrial proof.. THE MAN 59 a towel. Do you know who I am? thunderedWhistler. Looking as though he had been shot, theauctioneer said he thought he was Mr. Whistler.Yes: I am Mr. Whistler, the Master replied inclear, cold tones as he handed him over the notice; and I beg that you will explain yourself. Whatdo you mean by sending me all these papers that Ihave received from time to time? Each notice hasbecome more vicious in colour and in character, andat last the colouring has become so atrocious thatI have come to demand of you what you mean byarresting an artist
RM2AJJGRD–Whistler as I knew him . btleties, no cream or ivorytones, but — a clean flake white with nothing added. Furniture, in Whistlers opinion, should be assimple as possible and be of straight lines. He didnot care for what are commonly called comfortablechairs. He hated anything that suggested lazinessin any way. Comfort never appealed to him. I couldnot picture Whistler sitting in an armchair by thefireside. That was not typical of him at all. Thechairs in his house were dainty and upright. If youwant to be comfortable, he was wont to say, go tobed. A piano I never saw in a house of Whistlers.The
RM2AJJJWA–Whistler as I knew him . t for the world; but therewas no doubt about it — in the cold daylight wewere thoughtful and depressed. Brilliant and spark-ling, the Master entered, and, with a few words, pickedus up again. He knew the value of his own work,and he soon impressed us with his views,—dealers andall. He hypnotised the dealers, as he did everyoneelse ; and they worked for him loyally. They showedthe right spirit. It mattered little to them whetherthey sold the Masters work or not. They felt that itwas sufficient privilege merely to exhibit them. Whis-tler literally bubbled over with joy.
RM2AJKN4Y–Whistler as I knew him . bits of letter-writing, but that Iwould insert a footnote in my catalogue and acknow-ledge the generous help of the Master in my artisticlife. Whistler instantly turned upon me, more en-raged than ever. Sir, he said, your conductsavours of the police court, and marched out of thegallery. The last stab of all that I received from his rapierwas after I had distempered my house in Fulham,and it became talked about in the newspapers asThe Home of Taste; it was in connection with thishouse that he had me interviewed for a Philadelphiannewspaper. The interview was extraordin
RM2AJK50D–Whistler as I knew him . FROM PICKLED-HERRING STAIRSTrial proof, without dry point.. I / ^
RM2AJKD50–Whistler as I knew him . It was daylight beforeI was allowed to leave the house. The works ofEdgar Allan Poe influenced Whistler immensely.His essays and writings benefited enormously byhis contact with that clever man. He read verylittle — I never saw him read a book ; — but he hastold me many times that he much admired BretHarte. In fact, he thought him a far greater liter-ary genius than Dickens or Thackeray. Dickens hecould find no excuse for at all. No man knew his limitations better than Whistler.They affected both his literary work and his painting.He rarely undertook work that he could
RM2AJK20X–Whistler as I knew him . IRVING AS PHILIP OF SPAIN Second trial proof.. ?HMHHi IRVING AS PHILIP OF SPAIN First state of the plate, urulescribed in WedmoresCatalogue.
RM2AJK9KB–Whistler as I knew him . C-K^ A Vv^sL i*£. TWO SHIPS Second state.. THE PAINTER 73 figure of Whistler working upon such huge canvases,his sinuous lingers wielding such enormous brushes,almost as large as a house-painters brushes. Every-thing he used in his painting was colossal — brushes,canvases, and a table for a palette. Carlyle, whenhe was being painted, was very much impressed withthe outfit. You are indeed a workman, he said:your tools are the tools of the workman. When one praised a picture of Whistlers, he wasgenerally flattered; but in a way his feelings werehurt. He felt that it was
RM2AJM348–Whistler as I knew him . nkment, to look at some nocturne, perhaps a fishshop, which Whistler was trying to commit to mem-ory. He would talk aloud as he created the ideafor one of his marvellous pictures. He would say: Look at that golden interior with the two spots oflight, and that old woman with the cherpiered shawl.See the warm purple tone outside going away up tothe green of the sky, and the shadows from the win-dows thrown on the ground. What an exquisite lace-work they form! He would say all this aloud, andI would walk back with him to his studio, and talkwith him, sometimes, until two
RM2AJKAN9–Whistler as I knew him . what is called broken colour, whichresults in a series of accidents causing the picturefinally to represent a Persian carpet rather than aface. When Whistlers days work was over, and oneexamined his palette, it was always beautiful, andmerely a repetition of his picture. You saw the fleshtones, with the little touches of Antwerp blue thathad been dragged into it at the last moment to sug-gest the veins, and the violets and the rose tones.You could trace every part of the picture on thatpalette. Even the eye became on the palette a mixedtone and a part of the flesh. So
RM2AJKKBA–Whistler as I knew him . nt walk! Whatsize may it have been? The lady murmured thatit was much the size of his own, and, feeling that shehad been creating too much of an annoyance, startedto work on a new canvas. Now another difficultypresented itself before the painter. His picture wasnearly finished; but it required certain and expen-sive colours, such as rose madder and cobalt blue.Soon an amateur sailed in, trying to look as thoughhe had lived his life in a studio, but with amateurwritten all over him. Dressed in a velvet jacket withsilk facings, and a voluminous necktie carefullytwisted r
RM2AJJP3K–Whistler as I knew him . THE RIVA, NUMBER TWO. THE BRITISH ARTISTS 111 imagined I would bring notoriety to your gallery.Did you then also imagine that when I entered yourbuilding I should leave my individuality on the door-mat ? If so, you are mistaken. No, British Artists:I am still the same eccentric Whistler whom youinvited into your midst. So the conversazione continued. It was a bigfight from start to finish. Whistler made a dramaticexit, taking with him in his triumphant train quite anumber of British Artists. His parting words were, I am taking with me the Artists, and I leave theBritis
RM2AJJBFG–Whistler as I knew him . stopped andtalked with the men. One day he was out paintingon the sands, and, seeing a fisherman mending hisnets, the Master, still with the fish scheme on hismind, took the opportunity of explaining to him thebeauties of the scene upon which he was working. Ah, yes, said the fisherman, as he paused in hiswork: I know all about that sort of thing. Therewas a great painter down here once; he did a sketchof me, and after it was finished he gave it to me. —Well, and do you value it much? asked Whistler,looking up. 0, yes, said the man. You see, sir,he was a great artist i
RM2AJKG80–Whistler as I knew him . oing with Whistler to a house inwhich there lived a family of musicians — geniuses,every one of them —? and they gave a musical evening.Some sang, some played the violin, others the piano;there were cellos, fifes, trombones, big drums, andevery instrument you could possibly imagine. Whist-ler, I remember, sat on a Louis Quatorze settee, withhis mouth wide open and a perfectly blank expressionon his face, watching these people, as they performedone after the other, as though he had been hypnotised.He couldnt speak to me, he didnt speak to me; butI heard him muttering to
RM2AJJFEF–Whistler as I knew him . NOCTURNEFrom a lithograph.. HOUSE DECORATION 131 stole in surreptitiously one day while the artists wereat work. He paused on the threshold aghast. Hisrage knew no bounds, and he demanded of Whistlerwhat he had done with his Spanish leather, whichhad cost him so many hundreds of pounds. Whistlerturned his face, half covered with gold and bluepaint, and surveyed Leyland critically. Your Span-ish leather, he said, is beneath my peacocks ; andan excellent ground, too, it formed to paint them on.Leyland was furious. In what sum was he indebtedto Whistler for having wrecked
RM2AJJRN2–Whistler as I knew him . THE BRIDGE. THE BRITISH ARTISTS 107 ards the ceiling it ran short, and certain of thebattens were left exposed; but time was valuable,and Whistler allowed the omission to pass. I sug-gested that perhaps the critics might complain:they might call the gallery unfinished and a skeleton.Whistler imperiously waived my objection uponone side. What matter? he said. If theycomplain, we can simply tell them that the battensform decorative lines and are well placed. In avery short time he had quite convinced himself andall of us that these exposed battens were indispen-sable to
RM2AJM0FP–Whistler as I knew him . rtunityof placing the smart young man of his day. Rem-brandt we recognised to a certain extent, becauseWhistler had been heard to say that he had had hisgood days. Also, however, he had remarked thatRembrandt revelled in gummy pigment and treaclytones: so Rembrandt, in our opinion, did not occupymuch of a position. Canaletto and Velasquez weplaced high, very high, but not, of course, on thesame plane with Whistler. The only master withwhom Ave could compare our own was Hokusai, theJapanese painter. At that time we copied Whistler in every detail.If he painted from a ta
RM2AJJECD–Whistler as I knew him . TRAVELS STUDY From a lithograph.. TRAVELS Once we went to St. Ives in connection with aseries of pictures for an exhibition that Whistlerwas to hold in Bond Street. There were three of us,— the Master, myself, and another follower, — and wetook apartments in a little lodging-house kept by anold lady. Very small and very humble rooms theywere, no doubt; but many and charming are thememories that cling to them. Lodging-house orpalace, it was all the same. The presence of theMaster acted as a charm; and to us enthusiasticadmirers it mattered not that the chairs were ofhor
RM2AJMA8J–Whistler as I knew him . The Illustrations in this volume were engraved and printed at theMenpes Press under Mr. Menpess directionwhistlerasiknew00menp. 9
RM2AJK46R–Whistler as I knew him . FROM PICKLED-HERRING STAIRS. la THE ETCHER Many people look upon Whistler more as anetcher than as a painter. That was for a simple rea-son. Whistlers pictures have been bought only bythe few, and are exhibited at galleries but rarely.His etchings, on the other hand, are scattered broad-cast in hundreds of homes and exhibitions. There-fore, it is his etchings, not his pictures, that havegained for him the universal admiration and recogni-tion of the world. From his very earliest daysWhistler was an etcher. I met at a dinner-partya lady who went to a quaint little schoo