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WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES

WHISTLER
NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
AND OTHER MEMORANDA
BY
A. E. GaXLeL h- ' i\_

1907
NEW YORK : THE COLLECTOR AND ART CRITIC CO.
LONDON: ELKIN MATHEWS

Copyright, 1907,
By The Collector and Art Critic Co.
All rights reserved.

~7\Z

CONTENTS
Whistler as a Man of Letters  15
Whistler's Realism  25
The Whistler Memorial Exhibition:
Boston, 1904  31
On Certain Drawings by Whistler ... 37
Whistler and Others  43
Whistler: Master of the Lithograph ... 47
On Some Grotesques by Leonardo ... 53
Puvis de Chavannes as a Caricaturist . . 57
Arthur Symons on Aubrey Beardsley . . 61
A Book-plate by Otho Cushing .... 65
Some Notable Criticism  69
The Etchings in Colour of Bernard
Boutet de Monvel  73
The Art of Everett Shinn  79
The English Caricaturists  85
Childe Hassam: A Note  89

PLATES
"Symphony in Gray — the Thames at Dusk"
From the hitherto unpublished water-colour by
Whistler in the author's possession. Frontispiece
"The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
Facsimile of title-page to first edition. . 17
Studies of Poppies  29
From the hitherto unpublished pastel by Whist
ler in the author's possession.
Studies of Porcelain  41
From a drawing by Whistler reproduced in the
catalogue of Sir Henry Thompson's "Blue-and-
White."
Grotesques  52 and 55
Drawn by Leonardo da Vinci
Book-plate Design  67
From the hitherto unpublished drawing by Otho
Cushing in the author's possession.
"Matinee Crowd— Broadway"  78
From the pastel by Everett Shinn in the au
thor's possession.
"Shoveling Snow— New England" .... 91
From the hitherto unpublished painting by
Childe Hassam in the author's possession.
9

PREFACE
"This book was written for one sole reason —
because fhe subject amused us."
It was with these words that Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Pennell introduced their valuable treatise upon
lithography, and certainly this is the very best
reason for studying and writing about anything,
and about art in particular ; for without a proper
understanding of an artist's work, and a complete
sympathy with his aims, art criticism is indeed
valueless. All of the artists included in the fol
lowing pages have amused me, for, being a free
lance, I have in every case written what I have
cared to write about artists whose work I have
cared to discuss, and preference has been given to
artistic byways and less familiar aspects of cer
tain artists' genius.
My first three notes are reprinted from "Whis
tler's Art Dicta," issued two years ago in a very
limited edition, which was soon exhausted. Be
fore this they had appeared in "The Lamp"
(Charles Scribner's Sons), "The Literary Collec
tor," "The Weekly Critical Review" (of Paris),
and "The Studio." The remaining material in
11

the book was originally published in "The Stu
dio," "The Scrip," "The Literary Collector,"
"The New York Times Saturday Review of
Books," "The Critic," "The New York Evening
Post," "Brush and Pencil," "The Lamp," and
"The Collector and Art Critic," and is here re
produced through the courtesy of the editors of
these various publications.
The Whistler "butterflies" used on the cover
and title-page of this volume are now reproduced
for the first time.
A. E.G.
New York, 15 December, 1906

12

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES

WHISTLER AS A MAN OF
LETTERS
In the autumn of 1897 the proclamation of a
London publisher contained the information that
a new edition of "The Gentle Art of Making
Enemies" was about to make its appearance and
Max Beerbohm seized upon this joyful news and
made it the subject for one of his inimitable
essays. "Oasis found in the desert of Mr. William
Heinemann's Autumn List!" he exclaimed with
proper enthusiasm,— "most exquisite announce
ment!" But, alas, the "exquisite announcement"
did not bear fruit, for Mr. Whistler's continued
ill health — I have it on the authority of his pub
lisher, and I chronicle it for the first time— Mr.
Whistler's health did not permit him to make the
exertion which the preparation of a new edition
would have entailed.
And again were we doomed to disappointment.
When Mr. Heinemann's Autumn, 1903, notices
began to crop out in the public prints, we discov
ered among them this selfsame "exquisite an
nouncement." But again, alas! for this new edi
tion turned out to be only a reprint of the edition
15

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
published in 1892. However, we were not too de
spondent, for the earlier editions of "The Gentle
Art" are classed among those wondrous tomes
which the auctioneer carefully designates as
"scarce" or "very rare," and we therefore were
duly grateful for the latest "Gentle Art," even
though it were but a reprint.
The first edition of Whistler's book, in which
"the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasper
ated, have been prettily spurred on to unseemli
ness and indiscretion," bears the title page which
is reproduced in facsimile on the opposite page.
This book is the collection of Whistler's letters to
the London newspapers, and the accounts of his
quarrels, which were prepared for publication by
his secretary, Sheridan Ford, with Whistler's ap
proval and assistance. Just as the book was about
to go to press, Whistler suddenly decided to place
the material in the hands of another, and he wrote
to Mr. Ford, enclosing a cheque for ten guineas,
and prayed him to let the matter rest. To this let
ter Sheridan Ford replied that he did not fancy
this arrangement, saying, "I assure you that the
book projected by me will see the light in due sea
son ; and the story of your charming camaraderie
16

THE GENTLE ART OF
MAKING ENEMIES :
EDITED BY SHERIDAN FORD

NEW YORK
FREDERICK STOKES & BROTHER
i8go

WHISTLER AS A MAN OF LETTERS
being now public, will be scheduled with the rest
of the trophies. So will this letter."
This, the earliest version of "The Gentle Art,"
comprises about the same collection of letters
which a few months later appeared in the author
ized edition, as well as an essay by the editor on
"Mr. Whistler as the 'Unattached Writer,' " and
a chapter containing twenty-two Whistler anec
dotes. Such is the matter which was published in
this volume, a duodecimo, of two hundred and
fifty-six pages, bound in green paper with type
set titles printed in red. When the book, after
many futile efforts, finally appeared, it was
promptly suppressed, and the few copies which
survived are, I imagine, worth their weight in
radium. The edition of "The Gentle Art" which was
"printed under" Whistler's "own immediate care
and supervision" appeared the same year as the
"garbled version," and bore the imprint in Lon
don of William Heinemann, and in New York of
the John W. Lovell Co. This volume, which was
reprinted in 1892— with the addition of the cata
logue of "Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet
Pieces," and five letters, three written by Whis-
19

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
tier— and of which the 1904 edition is an exact re
print, is an octavo of two hundred and ninety-two
pages, bound in brown boards stamped in gold.
The matter contained in it comprises fifty-eight
letters written by Whistler to the press, many
quotations from newspapers, several interviews,
and Whistler's account of the Whistler v. Ruskin
case, "Mr. Whistler and his Critics,"— this being
the catalogue of an exhibition of his etchings and
dry-points, with quotations from his severest crit
ics under each title, and frequent annotations by
Whistler,— as well as a number of pieces of art
criticism.
All of Whistler's contributions to the literature
of art criticism are to be found collected in "The
Gentle Art," as are all his writings in fact, ex
cept his "valentine with a verdict" entitled "Eden
versus Whistler, the Baronet and the Butterfly,"
and some stray letters addressed to the news
papers. They bear the following titles: "Whist
ler v. Ruskin, Art and Art Critics;" "The Prop
ositions;" "The Propositions, No. 2;" "The Red
Rag;" "Mr. Whistler's Ten O'Clock," and "A
Further Proposition." 20

WHISTLER AS A MAN OF LETTERS
The first of these is Whistler's commentaries on
the famous case indicated by its title ; the second
is a set of rules for etchers ; the third contains rules
for the guidance of art critics; "The Red Rag" is
an interview with Whistler in which he explains
his theories; the "Ten O'Clock" is his lecture on
art, with its most exquisite diction and sound prin
ciples, delivered in London, Cambridge and Ox
ford, in 1885 ; and "A Further Proposition" in
structs painters in what manner they should paint
flesh. In the course of a review of D. S. MacColl's
"Nineteenth Century Art," Arthur Symons said,
"Everything that Mr. Whistler has written about
painting deserves to be taken seriously," and cer
tainly this is but a fair valuation of Whistler's art
dicta. The very interesting, if scarcely adequate,
"appreciation" of Whistler's art which Messrs.
Way and Dennis have given us contains a chap
ter on "Mr. Whistler as a Writer," and in this es
say the authors have echoed Mr. Symons' opin
ion. And they have made a more complete state
ment of the case by saying that the remaining
contents of "The Gentle Art," his "ephemeral
quarrels," are "better forgotten." 21

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
This is the opinion of an art critic, but not of a
lover of fine writing for its own sake. Many of
the letters are perfect gems, especially the briefer
ones, and in them "he projected the clear-ringing
echo of himself ' — I quote from an essay on Whis
tler's writings which appeared in the "Pall Mall
Magazine" by "Max," he of my opening para
graph. Also says this keen observer that "Ten
O'Clock" is fragmentary, that it "lacks struc
ture." More satisfying, as a rule, are Whistler's
etchings and the smaller canvases than those re
quiring a greater and more sustained effort, —
and so it is with his writings.
Whistler's pamphlet, "Art and Art Critics," is
a "vigorous onslaught on the critics," as these
critics term it; and Whistler's opmion that the
painter should be the "critic and sole authority"
on painting was disputed in the strongest terms
at the time by the art critic of the Times, Tom
Taylor, who insisted that the opposite of this was
true, and wrote (the document is given in "The
Gentle Art") : "God help the artists if ever the
criticism of pictures falls into the hands of paint
ers! It would be a case of vivisection all round."
Assuredly, an essay on the artist as art critic
22

WHISTLER AS A MAN OF LETTERS
would be very interesting, if only to show that his
naturally prejudiced opinions are of but little
value.1 Whistler himseK gave vent to several ex
traordinary utterances regarding some of the
world's greatest painters, it is true, but we are in
full accord with Messrs. Way and Dennis when
they say that "a collection of his obiter dicta would
make an excellent text book on the underlying
principles of art," and also when they add that "a
study of them would do much — indeed it has done
much — to raise the general level of art criticism."
^ir Joshua Reynolds' ' 'Discourses"and Leonardo
da Vinci's "Treatise on Painting," although the
latter can hardly be regarded as art criticism, should
be considered in such an essay.

23

WHISTLER'S REALISM
Versatility has been a characteristic of several
great masters of art. Leonardo da Vinci attained
great eminence and universal recognition in many
professions ; Michael Angelo and Rembrandt were
both great painters, but Michael Angelo was a
greater sculptor, Rembrandt a greater etcher—
since he and Whistler are generally acknow
ledged to be the supreme masters of this mode of
artistic expression. But one must look in vain in
the whole domain of art to discover a more brilliant
parade of varied genius, a more remarkable mas
tery over several media, than that shown by
Whistler. Whistler thoroughly mastered painting, etch
ing, the lithograph, the pastel, the water-colour,
the pen and the pencil. His subjects included
portraits, genre pieces, landscapes, marines, and
"nocturnes," the first paintings to depict the
mystery and poetry of night, as well as several
notable examples of interior decoration, includ
ing the famous "Peacock Room." Sometimes
Whistler gave us harmonies composed of the
most sombre colours, they being frequently, as
25

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
in the portraits, painted in large part with such
luminous blacks as only Velasquez was able to
obtain; occasionally, as in the canvases painted
while obviously under the spell of Japan, the
rare harmonies are composed of colours of the
greatest brilliancy.
An art so individual as Whistler's was, an art
so isolated from any school, defies classification.
The scheme of a recent admirable work on the art
of the last century demanded, however, that his
art be ticketed and labelled, and Whistler was
placed in that section of the book headed "Real
ism." Employing the term in its original, tech
nical, and proper sense, as it is understood when
applied to Manet or Degas, it is incorrect to speak
of Whistler as a Realist. Even giving the word
a wider meaning, applying it to all artists hold
ing that art should find its inspirations in con
temporary and national life, and should depict
subjects as they actually appear before them,
realistically and without selection — even this cate
gory does not include Whistler; it is only in the
most general manner imaginable that the term
Realism may with propriety be applied to Whis
tler's art/ And an Impressionist was Whistler
26

WHISTLER'S REALISM
only insomuch as he recorded fleeting and mo- y
mentary effects— his theory of colouring is in
direct antagonism to the brilliant spectrum pal
ette of the Impressionists.
Realism was the dominating note in art, as it
was in literature, during the latter half of the
nmeteenth century,1 but it was in quite a different
manner that Whistler and the Realists and Im
pressionists viewed nature. The two latter chose
for the subjects of their paintings such scenes
as the cheaper Parisian music-halls and cafes;
such landscape as a forlorn and sordid stretch
of land bordering on a large town; such sub
jects for portraits as washerwomen, vagabonds,
specimens of depraved humanity, an ancient
ballet-dancer, horrible as she poses at the pho-

1 «

Tolstoy in fiction, Ibsen in drama, Walt Whit
man in poetry, and Wagner in music ....
brought into art a new spirit, and, in some re
spects, a new form. To the same type of creative
force must now be added the name of Rodin."
(From Rudolf Dircks' "Auguste Rodin.") The
author might have also included the name of
Whistler. 27

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
tographer's in her make-up in a bright morning
sun. Moreover, the Reahsts often ignored the
demands of art and of taste, and made their can
vases brutal and cynical to the point of carica
ture—more unmerciful than snapshots. At the
same time, it is necessary to add, they founded
the intensely modern and national school which
reigns supreme in France to-day.
With Whistler it was different: he never de
scended to the obvious or commonplace. No mat
ter how prosaic the scene, to him it is brilliant
with poetry and music. The following passage
from "Ten O'Clock," the artist's lecture on art,
shows the spirit in which he pamted and etched
the Thames : "And when the evening mist clothes
the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the
poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and
the tall chimneys become campanile, and the
warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole
city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before
us ... "
Manet or Degas could have successfully illus
trated Zola. Whistler might have illustrated Flau
bert. All were Realists, but Whistler and Flau
bert were artists in addition. 28

THE WHISTLER MEMORIAL
EXHIBITION: BOSTON, 1904
The exhibition of Whistler's works held in Bos
ton during February and March, 1904, was the
best memorial the master could have received.
And it was fitting and proper that this initial
commemorative exhibition, for others were later
held in London and Paris, should have been in
America, in fact, not far from the artist's birth
place. The Copley Society could not obtain the
portrait of the painter's mother, nor that of Car
lyle; but among the eighty-two paintings in oil
which they did gather together were to be found
"The White Girl," "The Little White Girl,"
"La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine," "Le
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac," "Pablo
Sarasate," "The Fur Jacket," and "The Music
Room," and the exhibition was therefore a repre
sentative one. By the additional exhibits of two
hundred and thirty etchings and dry-points, eighty
lithographs, thirty-nine water-colours, thirty-six
pastels, and forty-five drawings, the value of the
exhibition was greatly increased, for we were thus
able to study and compare the results obtained
31

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
with all of the various media of artistic expression
in which Whistler experimented and studied,
which he mastered, and in which he discovered new
possibilities. As a matter of fact, the array of pictures was
really overwhelming as it was, and one thought
of the very slender offerings which Whistler him
self arranged, exhibitions in which a dozen etch
ings or slight pastels were given all the glory of
a room to themselves, a room specially decorated
to receive them. However, one should not criti
cize the exhibition on this score, for, after all, it
was only a matter of having sufficient time at
one's disposal.
The paintings, in the frames which the artist
designed for them — of dull gold, for the most
part plain, with the exception of moulding in
parallel lines, and sometimes decorated with a
pattern in paint— were all shown in the same gal
lery, a long room draped in an admirable grey
material, with several golden butterflies appear
ing at intervals in the frieze. At one end was
hung, in the place of honour, "The White Girl,"
certainly one of Whistler's very greatest achieve
ments; at the other, "Rose and Silver, La Prin-
32

WHISTLER MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
cesse du Pays de la Porcelaine," one of the artist's
most ambitious pictures, both as regards quality
and size, but not one of bis most satisfying and
harmonious arrangements of colours, beautiful
as it is.
Other notable portrait and figure pieces in
cluded such masterpieces of the artist's genius as
"Gold and Brown"— the portrait of the artist be
longing to Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, one of the
most attractive of the portraits of himself, and a
canvas one does not recall having seen before,
either in the original or reproduction, — a full-
length portrait of a man, known as "An Arrange
ment in Flesh Colour and Brown," painted in
Paris in 1894 ; the splendid portrait of Miss Rosa
Corder; "Portrait de Madame S  ;" the som
bre portrait of Mrs. Cassatt; a masterfully posed
portrait of a woman, entitled "L'Andalusienne ;"
"Harmony in Red;" "Whistler with a Hat;" the
four small and somewhat similar paintings of
little girls, named "Grenat et Or," "The Little
Red Glove," "The Rose of Lyme-Regis," and
"Rose and Gold"— all equally engaging. Also
shown, among numerous others, were six of the
"Japanese" paintings, executed in brilliant pig-
33

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
ments with a sweeping and full and liquid
brush, superb "symphonies" in purple, vermillion,
white, blue, green. A great many of the artist's
dehghtful genre pieces were also on view, and an
excellent selection of his amazing "nocturnes,"
the unequalled paintings of dusk and night upon
the Thames. Chief among these latter were "Cre-
morne Lights," "Bognor,"— a pamting often ex
hibited in America, — and "The Lagoon, Ven
ice." The etchings and dry-points were displayed in
a long apartment cut in three by two screens,
which, with the walls, were covered with a white
material, while a frieze extending around the
room was of pale yellow. They convinced one
that no artist has even approached Whistler in
this medium except Rembrandt, if any further
proofs were needed. Framed in white, with white
mounts, the plates appeared to advantage, and
formed as representative a collection as one could
desire. The lithographs, likewise, called for much
attention, and showed him to be the equal of any
one in this fascinating medium. The same may
be said also of the water-colours and pastels which
were shown. These, with the etchings and litho-
34

WHISTLER MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
graphs, seemed to express his genius better than
the oil paintings, for his was not a vigorous art,
but the last word in an art refined and elegant.
Nothing could be more perfect in their way than
such of the pastels — they are all on brown paper,
with the outlines sketched in in black chalk — as a
figure, hghtly draped in blue and purple, called
"Morning Glories," the similar designs entitled
"Mother and Child," "Blue and Violet," "May,"
an exquisite undraped figure, "The Purple Cap,"
and many others, including "A Venetian Door
way," which differs from the artist's other pastels
insomuch as it is almost an architect's drawing, so
complete is it in detail.
The drawings on exhibition, some executed in
pencil, some in pen and ink, others in sepia wash,
and some sketches in water-colour or pastel,
though shght performances, were full of charm.
Very attractive were the sketches made at Ajac
cio, and altogether engaging was the httle pen
and ink drawing of an old house at Canterbury.
Twenty-two drawings and sketches, some exe
cuted with a pen, others in water-colour, done by
the artist while at school, were most interesting,
and were shown for the first time, not having even
35

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
been chronicled before. The two copies of chromo
lithographs made while at West Point, under in
struction, were on view also, as was a cover de
signed by Whistler for the "U. S. MiUtary Acad
emy Song of the Graduates, 1852." None of these
three drawings would have been recognized as be
ing Whistler's, so different are they both in sub
ject and in treatment from his later work.

36

ON CERTAIN DRAWINGS BY
WHISTLER
To Whistler a picture with a "subject" was a very
grave offense against its perpetrator, and yet
Whistler himself was responsible for pictures
guilty of subject. His pictures of this description,
however, are very hmited in number, and their
existence is known to only a comparatively few
persons. Messrs. T. R. Way and G. R. Dennis have de
voted but a portion of a page of their well-written
"appreciation" of Whistler's art to a considera
tion of the artist's book illustrations, and although
we must regret that this decidedly interesting
phase of Whistler's genius has been thus slurred
over, we must be thankful, at any rate, for a cer
tain drawing which they have reproduced. The
design is nothing less than an illustration for
Dickens, and no one, I think, could possibly con
ceive of a more incongruous combination. This
sketch, executed in water-colours, and represent
ing Sam Weller's landlord in the Fleet, is ex
tremely well drawn and full of character and hfe,
37

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
especially so when one considers that the artist
at the time was only twelve years of age.
As our critics of the above paragraph say, the
two illustrations for "The First Sermon" which
Whistler contributed to "Good Words" in 1862,
and the four entitled "The Major's Daughter,"
"The Rehef Fund in Lancashire," "The Morn
ing before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew"
and "Count Burckhardt," which were pubhshed
in "Once a Week" the same year, "bear a strong
resemblance to his early etchings of figure sub
jects, and show equal command of line." These
drawings are very spirited and lost but httle of
their charm in the hands of the wood-engravers.
The artist executed the same year, in addition
to these illustrations, it may be noted, two etch
ings for a volume entitled "Passages from Mod
ern English Poets" to illustrate "The Angler's
Soliloquy," by J. H. Reynolds, and "A River
Scene," by Charles Mackay. A few copies of
this book were issued containing proofs before
letters ofthe etchings— which, although somewhat
shght and immature, are nevertheless altogether
charming. To complete the hst, we must mention
the two pen drawings exhibited at the Whistler
38

CERTAIN DRAWINGS BY WHISTLER
Memorial Exhibition held in London intended to
illustrate "Thoughts at Sunrise" by Mrs. Mon-
crieff . One of the designs represents the sun rising
over a great lake, in the other, over a great plain,
and both are signed with the butterfly signature.
Whistler's drawings for the catalogue of Sir
Henry Thompson's porcelain, although number
ing among the artist's most engaging perform
ances, seem to have been overlooked in the great
raking-over which has gone on since the artist's
death. This "Catalogue of Blue and White
Nankin Porcelain" was pubhshed in 1878 from
the house of Ellis and White of London in an
edition limited to two hundred and twenty cop
ies. Sir Henry executed several of the drawings,
which are reproduced in this book by the Auto
type process, but twenty-eight of the plates,
some of which represent groups, are the work of
Whistler. These compositions, which are in Indian ink,
each bearing the artist's butterfly signature de
vice, were executed in precisely the right spirit.
Whistler did not burden them with detail, but in
every case the quaint patterns and designs painted
upon the porcelain — before it is glazed, it may be
39

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
mentioned— have been perfectly suggested, and
the contour of these vases, bowls and jars has in
every case been correctly transcribed. In this re
spect these drawings form a striking contrast to
the etchings of Oriental porcelain, including
Blue-and-White, made about eighteen years
previously by Jules Jacquemart. Never was
there a greater artist in his chosen field, the etch
ing of objets d'art, than Jules Jacquemart. The
detail he put into his plates is extraordinary ; his
skill in rendering different materials, such as
marbles, metals, ivories and precious stones, was
nothing less than marvellous. And yet, as Fred
erick Wedmore has pointed out (Jacquemart is
one of his "Four Masters of Etching"), his
plates are not entirely free from criticism, for
"the roundness of the round objects is more than
once missing in his etchings." Where Jacque
mart was weak Whistler excelled. Whistler al
ways conceived his pictures as a whole, while
Jacquemart, in picturing a vase, let us say,
would often forget this fundamental truth and
lose himself in the intricate details of a design
upon the surface.

40

WHISTLER AND OTHERS1
Mr. Frederick Wedmore, author of half a dozen
imaginative works of literature, but better known
as an art critic, particularly through his "study and
catalogue" of Whistler's etchings and his book en
titled "Fine Prints," has gathered together in this
volume a set of twenty-four essays in little— if
we may borrow Mr. Lang's expression— many of
which we remember having read in the English re
views, in which most of them originally appeared.
Mr. Wedmore prefaces his volume with what
he terms a "Candid Word to the Enghsh Reader"
—a preface containing just a suggestion of the
quality we are wont to look for in the incompara
ble forewords of Bernard Shaw, the "G. B. S."
of former days. Declares Mr. Wedmore in these
italicised lines that not only does the average Eng
hsh reader fail to care for art criticism, but he
fears he does not care even for art itself.
Whistler's art has often been Mr. Wedmore's
theme and the estimate of the artist's genius which
he now gives us, "The Place of Whistler," may
1 Whistler and Others. By Frederick Wedmore.
43

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
be taken as a final summing up of what he has al
ready said. In vain we look for the brilhant pas
sages to be found in George Moore's essays— but
then George Moore's essays in art criticism have
never been approached— and, again, we must not
look for the sober judgment and learning dis
played in the remarks of D. S. MacColl, painter
as well as critic. In demanding such quahties, as
I have elsewhere pointed out, one is scarcely rea
sonable; but we have here the observations of a
connoisseur of distinction, and what Mr. Wed
more has to say of Whistler forms an essay of
more than usual merit.
This discriminating collector of prints also
gives us an interesting essay entitled "The Field
of the Print Collector" — a paper in which he un
avoidably reiterates much of what he said in his
book, which was entirely devoted to this subject.
Also he gives us a brief appreciation of D. Y.
Cameron, some of whose etchings I think will
eventually take rank with the masterpieces of the
craft, and there are numerous other essays of de
cided interest and value; although three or four
of the briefer papers, which are only two or three
pages in length, are much too fragmentary to
44

WHISTLER AND OTHERS
have been included. Mr. Wedmore's remarks on
the present fashionable art of the coloured mez
zotint (he dismisses the subject with a few words)
are particularly happy, and he is quite right in
saying that these prints do not possess "one-tenth
the character and art of a poster by Steinlen, a
poster by Toulouse-Lautrec, or by that true mas
ter of severe design and worthy composition, Eu
gene Grasset."

45

WHISTLER: MASTER OF THE
LITHOGRAPH1
In lithography Whistler found a medium emi
nently suited for the expression of his genius. A
master of practically all the various means known
to the artist for permanently recording the evi
dences of his talents, Whistler was never happier
in his results than when impressing his genius on
the lithographic stone. Here his penetrating pow
ers of observation, his genius for instinctively seiz
ing upon the essentials, the spirit, and life of the
scene before him, could be most rapidly and spon
taneously recorded. His light and magic touch
was here entirely unhampered, and a vivid sketch,
one full of elegance and style and brilliant sugges
tion — for much more is visible than is actually
recorded— was inevitably the result of his efforts
in this direction.
Thomas Way, the father of the compiler of the
catalogue now under consideration, and the only
printer Whistler intrusted with his work — ex-
1Mr. Whistler's Lithographs: The Catalogue
Compiled by Thomas R. Way. Second Edition.
47

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
cepting five lithographs which were printed in
Paris — was the first to call the artist's attention
to the possibilities offered by the lithograph as a
means of artistic expression. Until Whistler be
gan experimenting with the subtle chalk it had
never attained to this dignity, but now it is a
recognized medium, although as yet no one has
equalled the brilhant performances of him who
may with propriety be called the pioneer. Whis
tler is unquestionably the supreme master of the
lithograph. The first edition of this work, which appeared
in the Spring of 1896, recorded and otherwise de
scribed one hundred and thirty lithographs as
coming from Whistler's hand, and although this
new edition accounts for one hundred and sixty
specimens of the artist's genius in this direction,
all but a very few of these additional thirty are
prints which Whistler condemned and did not de
sire to be recorded. Descriptions of hitherto un-
described states of certain lithographs have also
been added, but those in colours are not de
scribed, as this would entail a separate descrip
tion of each printing. In these lithographs no
attempt was made at producing highly wrought
48

WHISTLER'S LITHOGRAPHS
compositions, but the colour was just touched in
— the only method suited to the medium. Fol
lowing the number and title of each hthograph
recorded in this catalogue, we have a description
of the drawing sufficiently exact to place it, a note
of the number of proofs made, whether or not the
drawing was signed, and the date of its execution.
Note is also made where a lithograph has been re
printed, and lithographs issued as supplements to
art j ournals are so recorded. Perhaps a more exact
bibliographer would have added the dates of the
periodicals ; certain it is that such additional data
would have been of service to the collector.
A new introduction, covering nine pages, has
been written for this edition. The original fore
word has been retained also, it may be noted, but
the curious portrait of Whistler, worked on a
little by the artist himself, has unfortunately been
omitted from the revised version. In these pages
the author gives us numerous interesting tech
nical remarks on the art of lithography in general
and as applied to Whistler in particular.
As regards the format of this small volume, we
have nothing but praise. Set at the Chiswick
Press in type bearing somewhat the character of
49

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
Caslon, and printed on a most gratifying hand
made paper, it is substantially bound in brown
boards, held together by a strip of pure vellum.
In appearance the book is thus very Whistler-
esque; the type-set title-page in fact was de
signed by the artist himself.
Thus we now possess a satisfactory catalogue
of Whistler's lithographs, and Frederick Wed
more has given us a catalogue of the etchings. It
now remains for some industrious spirit to draw
up a descriptive list of the paintings, the pastels,
the water-colours, and the drawings. I suppose
we may reasonably expect to find such tables in
the much delayed biography by Mrs. Pennell.

50

-~>

¦ Mr'

¦

ON SOME GROTESQUES BY
LEONARDO
More than any other quahty, the grotesque finds
instant sympathy in a work of art. No one who
has walked around, examining with curious eyes,
that circle of old, high-backed carved choir stalls
in a certain Venetian church, has failed to be
greatly amused and interested by the second arm
of the last seat. On the arms of all the other seats
have been deftly cut a cherub's head, but on this
appears the head of a devil.
Came the day when the sculptor's wearisome
task neared completion, and overjoyed at the
prospect, the happy mortal permanently recorded
his sentiments in the manner truthfully set down.
And this is the one at which we look the longest.
The genial gargoyles which adorn the lofty
gallery running around Notre Dame are very
notorious, but does every one know of the exist
ence of the keenly humorous caricatures in which
Leonardo da Vinci found recreation for his pen
cil? Several pages containing such drawings are
carefully preserved in the Academy in Venice,
53

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
and the reproductions here given are from photo
graphs taken directly from the original.
Although Leonardo would be the last person
one would name as being their creator, at the
same time one can readily see that they are the
work of some great master. How much character
they express, and what sure draughtsmanship
and wonderfully expressive hne they display!
If Leonardo were ahve to-day, even the inimit
able "Max" would have to look to his laurels.
As it is, these two caricaturists stand quite alone.
Rather an amusing niche in the Hall of Fame!

54

PUVIS DE CHAVANNES AS A
CARICATURIST
When a man of mighty genius begins to make bis
presence felt in the world, a frightful howl invar
iably arises from the critics whose prejudices, aris
ing from deep learning in "schools" and regard for
precedent, have received a violent shock. Wagner's
lyric dramas were branded as uncouth noises,
Whistler's paintings as httle better than tinted
wall-paper. A deluge of abuse submerged Keats,
but Byron rephed to his critics in as vigorous
terms as they themselves employed, and Whistler
in his "Gentle Art of Making Enemies," im
mortalized many of his carping critics with his
shafts of stinging wit and biting satire.
Comes the day, finally, when the musician, the
poet, the artist wins universal recognition. Per
haps this day arrives in time for a grateful coun
try to give him a bit of ribbon— an action spoken
of in such an appreciative manner by Browning
— perhaps it comes too late. It is then that the in
dustrious one busies himself with compiling and
editing all the odds and ends of hterary material
left by the deceased that he can get into his rav-
57

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
enous clutch. The masterpieces were rejected and
cast aside a few years ago: to-day every unworthy
scrap of rubbish is carefully collected.
Several of the world's great painters have left
legacies behind them in the shape of caricatures
with which to surprise the world. I well re
member my mild amazement upon coming across
the grotesque conceits from the pen of Leonardo
da Vinci, described and illustrated in the preced
ing chapter, when visiting Venice several years
ago. Other artists of the greatest renown have
also found relaxation in allowing their pencils to
idly scribble away, but it was nevertheless a dis
tinct shock to pick up a portfoho of caricatures
by Puvis de Chavannes. We were so absolutely
unprepared for anything of the sort. The Leon
ardo drawings only charmed us— while the Puvis
caricatures, as they are called, only make us long
for more stringent laws for regulating the hter
ary ghoul.
Nothing, I think, in the whole range of art,
offers quite the same comparison between this
artist's lofty and severe compositions, which take
the highest rank among the world's masterpieces
of mural decoration, and these trivial, wretched
58

CHAVANNES AS A CARICATURIST
httle sketches, thrown off in unthinking moments
and utterly devoid of all artistic merit. Unhappy
man to have to bear down the ages the addi
tional burden of this luggage! Unmerciful body
snatcher to delve into a well-deserved resting
place I

59

ARTHUR SYMONS ON AUBREY
BEARDSLEY
This re-issue of Mr. Arthur Symons' well-known
essay on Beardsley,1 in much more elaborate form,
is one more proof that this extraordinary artist's
celebrity has developed into something more than
mere renown of an ephemeral nature. It is now
nearly nine years since Beardsley's death, and the
interest of collectors and connoisseurs in his work
has abated not at all since his drawings ceased to
make their appearance ; on the contrary, we have
had given us album upon album, and monograph
upon monograph.
Beardsley was never in any sense of the word
a "popular" artist, although his three or four in
tensely original posters, which gave the impetus
to the art which later developed into such a vast
cult — and a comparatively few drawings of a more
or less regrettable nature— made the man-in- the-
street pause abruptly in his interminable prome
nade. At one time, as a matter of fact, Beardsley
was a veritable craze, his renown even penetrated
' Aubrey Beardsley. By Arthur Symons. New
edition, revised and enlarged. 61

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
into the depths of smart London drawing-rooms,
and his very personal style was travestied in
"Punch." Fame, indeed! But this great noto
riety was the worst thing that could have hap
pened to Beardsley's elegant art, for he some
times pandered to it, and it is undoubtedly true
that the great mass of his work— a collection of
black and white drawings wliich stand unmatched
in technical achievement as well as in beauty and
originahty of subject— is unknown for the most
part to the general pubhc. This is really a most
deplorable condition of affairs, and it could easily
be changed by putting on pubhc view a collection
of the artist's really worthy works, for such a dis
play would have precisely the same effect on the
public as did the Whistler memorial exhibitions,
held in Boston, London and Paris after that great
artist's death.
The new edition of this monograph has been
enlarged by adding twenty-five plates to the orig
inal six, and by supplementing the prefatory
part of the essay with some interesting remarks
on a collection of Beardsley letters1 pubhshed in
1 Last Letters of Aubrey Beardsley. Edited by
the Rev. John Gray. 62

SYMONS ON AUBREY BEARDSLEY
1905, although Mr. Symons should have gone out
of his way, if necessary, to severely criticise the
editor for including a number of letters of the
most trivial nature, notes of a scant half dozen
words, which made this volume almost ridiculous.
By far the greatest interest attaching to this
edition of Mr. Symons' very sympathetic and
capable essay is the several drawings which have
now been reproduced for the first time, and at
least one of these drawings will take high rank
among his artistic achievements. This is the de
sign reproduced in photogravure, and, like its
companion illustration for "Evelina," it appears
only in the large paper edition of the book.
"Evelina and her Guardian"— once before made
the subject of a picture by Beardsley, a drawing
executed in both line and wash, although the lat
ter medium is subservient to the former — is one
of Beardsley's altogether charming compositions,
and as usual its wealth of intricate detail detracts
not one whit from the beauty of the general com
position of the design. The graceful figure of
Evelina as she gazes wistfully through an open
window out over a sunny country landscape is
one of the most wholly captivating creations of
the artist's marvellous pencil, and it is to be re-
63

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
gretted that we do not find more figures hke this
in his work. "Evelina at the Theatre," a design
executed in wash, a medium very unsatisfactory
at its best, is a drawing which calls for httle no
tice, at least in so far as we can judge it by the
reproduction, while the unused design for the
covers of "Bon Mots" is an excellent example of
the artist's more vigorous hne work.
There is no note to the effect that "Raphael
Sanzio" appears for the first time in reproduc
tion, but certainly this important, though unpre
tentious design, with its composition so reminis
cent of one or two of the artist's other drawings,
has not been published before, unless in some very
obscure periodical.
A facsimile reproduction of the original of
Beardsley's rendering of Catullus Carmen CI
also adds interest to this monograph.

64

A BOOK-PLATE BY OTHO
CUSHING
In treatment belonging to the realm of plates
known as pictorial, but in character armorial, the
book-plate by Otho Cushing here reproduced is a
design which appeals both to the artist and to the
student of heraldry. The original drawing, which
is fifteen by seventeen inches in size, is executed in
pen and ink, and displays the artist's great control
over the single line and his keen sense of decora
tion. The arms are those of a family for long the
rulers of Geneva, and before this, in the thirteenth
century, nobles of Savoy. Represented in the de
sign, correctly costumed, is a nobleman of this
period and his lady.
Cushing is an American artist who has been
influenced in his works by the Greek vase painters
and the designs of Flaxman. Classic types he
invariably employs, putting them into modern
clothes, and amid modern surroundings ; or some
times it is a scene from mythology he pictures.
In the latter choice of subjects he tinges his work
with subtle caricature, if not actually broad hu
mor. His drawings are eminently suited to the
65

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
humorous paper through which his work has be
come widely Icnown— and yet it seems a great
misfortune that such decided talents should not
be more seriously and assiduously cultivated.

66

SOME NOTABLE CRITICISM
The separate monograph, concerning the work of
some particular artist, is the form of art criticism
now most in vogue. And the numerous elaborate
volumes of this class which have appeared within
the past few years include many which are really
most valuable pieces of criticism, even if the text
does not always attain to the same degree of per
fection as the wealth of illustrations, the photo
gravures which are masterpieces of the engraver's
art, and the magnificent and sumptuous setting
which these volumes have been given. A number of
splendid volumes on the Enghsh artists of the
eighteenth century, which have recently been ap
pearing in England, are typical of the scholarly
volumes on both ancient and modern painters
which are now issuing from the presses of Eng
land and France, many of these treatises being
important and permanent additions to the history
of art. Besides these we have had series without
end of a less elaborate character, but not lacking
in interest and value ; and even these biographical
and critical studies of well-known artists have
been supplemented with excursions into almost
69

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
all the artistic byways: prints, plate, miniatures,
ivory, china, furniture, ornament, costume, book
plates, illustration— all these and many more sub
jects have been considered for both the creator
and the connoisseur.
But it remains a fact that in spite of all these
books England has produced no fine body of art
criticism. The efforts have been very scattered.
Mr. MacColl's "Nineteenth Century Art," with
its display of wide learning and its broad treat
ment, has filled a very real gap in Enghsh cul
ture, and filled it, it may be added, in a most ac
ceptable manner — the more so since the period
covered in this great work was the period which
had been most neglected. Will Rothenstein, re
viewing the book in "The Saturday Review,"
called it, and very properly, "the most impor
tant and stimulating book on painting and
sculpture which has appeared during the last
generation." Before the advent of this volume,
George Moore's set of brilliant essays collected
under the caption "Modern Painting" was one
of the very few authorities we possessed in Eng
lish on the painters of the modern schools. Rus
kin, whose opinions are becoming less and less
70

SOME NOTABLE CRITICISM
valued, was about the only other writer of distinc
tion. This being the case, Mr. Kenyon Cox's vol
ume,1 a collection of critical essays on "old mas
ters and new," possesses an interest quite apart
from the intrinsic value of the book, as it marks
the advent of a critic with an extensive knowledge
of art and an understanding of schools of widely
differing sympathies.
In giving us for the most part sympathetic and
thoughtful studies of the work of Michael An
gelo, Diirer, Frans Hals, and William Blake
among his chosen "old masters," and of Burne-
Jones, Puvis de Chavannes, and Whistler among
the "new masters," Mr. Cox displays a fine ap
preciation of the best in art; although the inclu
sion of Velasquez among the former, and of Mo
net, the greatest of the impressionists, and Rodin,
one of the greatest sculptors of all times, among
the latter, would have given more artistic sym
metry to the volume — as would have the exclusion
of Millais and Meissonier. But as it is, we have
lf'01d Masters and New: Essays in Art Criti
cism." By Kenyon Cox. 71

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
a really notable choice of subjects; and then we
should be thankful that Raphael, whom Whistler
called "the smart young man of his day," did not
find a place among this company.
The two essays in this volume which impress us
as being the most striking are those on Puvis de
Chavannes and Whistler, two artists whose work
must always remain more or less incomprehensi
ble to the general public. Mr. Cox's essay on
Puvis is very enlightening, and his task of point
ing out the artist's merits and qualities was cer
tainly a difficult one; for, as the author says,
Puvis' art "has been said to be the negation of
everything that has always been counted art, and
to be based on the omission of drawing, model
hng, light and shade, and even colour." Our critic
points out that his work must be seen in place : he
quite rightly says that his masterpieces of deco
rative art in the Boston Library are killed by
their too elaborate surroundings. He goes on to
say that his drawing is austere and noble, and
that at his best he is "absolutely grand and abso
lutely sincere." The essay on Whistler is one of
the most interesting and suggestive we have come
across for some time. 72

THE ETCHINGS IN COLOUR
OF BERNARD BOUTET
DE MONVEL
As a medium of artistic expression, etching in col
our enjoys much the same popularity in France as
the lithographs in colour which at present are com
manding so much attention in Germany. While so
many German artists, and artists of much abihty
both as draughtsmen and as painters, have ser
iously turned their attention to the possibilities of
fered by the lithographic stone as a vehicle for their
talents, and as a means of giving their work a
more extensive hearing, so have numerous artists
in France been devoting their time to the other
method of artistically reproducing designs in
colour. And while many of these artists have suc
ceeded in obtaining most satisfactory results, I
think no one has been more fortunate in his ex
periments than Bernard Boutet de Monvel, the
gifted son of an even more talented father.
Applying coloured inks to the copper is not a
practice common only to the present day, as is
generally supposed. Indeed, this method of print
ing the plates was practised as long ago as the
73

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
early part of the sixteenth century. It never at
tained any particular vogue, however, until it was
revived; and curiously enough this was done sim
ultaneously by two artists early in the last nine
ties, since when this dehghtful custom has won
many converts.
The expression, "etching in colour," has been
employed to prevent confusion with the coloured
etching ; that is, an etching not printed in colours.
Etchings in colours are produced in two manners.
One way is to apply the different inks upon the
same plate every time an impression is taken, and
the other is to have a separate copper for every
colour appearing in the design — thus demanding
a separate printing for each colour, while the first
method requires but one printing. It is the latter
method, of having a separate plate for each colour,
which is employed by M. de Monvel, and he is thus
able to obtain the broad flat tints and the very pre
cise, if often rather cold, effects of which he is so
very fond ; for when the inks are all put upon the
same plate, they cannot be as evenly distributed.
M. de Monvel's plates are very limited in
number, and, excepting a very few, they are all
in colour; he has also made several lithographs,
74

DE MONVEL'S ETCHINGS IN COLOUR
and two other designs partly etched in colours
and partly cut on wood. While his work displays
a great variety of subject, the artist seems to
have a particular hiring for the canals of Hol
land, and for the sturdy but bent and weather-
beaten peasants toihng along the banks of that
country's highways and byways. And he is par
ticularly happy in his results when depicting
such types, and also when giving us portraits of
the French peasantry, always making drawings
of much power and strength, drawings full of
character, of pathos. Look at the masterly draw
ing in his woodcut with its etched background
entitled "La Femme I'Eclusier," executed, it
may be noted, when the artist was not nineteen
years of age; and look at the toiling and weary
figure in "Le Long du Loing." How sympa
thetically the man has been drawn, and how well
the artist has caught his pecuhar gait. "Le
Vieux Cure" is another print full of character—
we have much more than a superficial glance at
the outward appearance of the priest— and its
very simphcity adds to its solemnity. If in tech
nique "La Femme I'Eclusier" reminds one
somewhat of William Nicholson's woodcuts, a
75

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
still clearer source of inspiration is discernible in
the artist's charming study of cliild hfe which he
calls "La Toilette": this print might almost be
taken for the work of Boutet de Monvel pere.
The artist's most ambitious plates, both as re
gards size and quahty, are the three entitled
"Le Depart pour la Chasse," "Rendezvous de
Chasse," and "Le Pax." Even more decorative
in treatment than his other designs, and yet
drawn with a very flexible line, are the first two
plates containing quaintly garbed ladies of the
middle of the last century, their flowing robes
lending themselves admirably for the introduc
tion of a succession of most beautiful tints, hunts
men with side whiskers and high stocks, splen
didly drawn horses, and formal backgrounds.
They are altogether dehghtful engravings, and
in themselves sufficient to warrant great popu
larity for their maker. How charming, too, is the
plate somewhat similar to these, entitled "Le
Pax," with its chateau and formal gardens, rem
iniscent of the Grand Trianon and Versailles!

76

THE ART OF EVERETT SHINN
Degas is an artist whose influence on the art of to
day is incalculable. Not so great a master as
Whistler, his genius, nevertheless, has probably
left much more of an impress upon his contempo
raries. Whistler, the greatest of the modems, was
possessed of a genius so subtle and so elusive, of a
personality so entirely his own, that his followers
must of necessity miss the very spirit and charm of
his exquisite harmonies and symphonies of colour.
But with Degas we have something more tangible :
his splendid quahties are more obvious. Here we
see draughtsmanship of an order which we must
needs go back to the studies of the old masters to
see equalled. And what other artist, if we except
a few of the old masters and the Japanese, has
displayed such an expressive and suggestive line,
a line so pregnant with character? In Degas,
then, the student can learn much; but let him be
wary, for if he follows Degas too closely the re
sult will be but gross caricature: the artist him
self often approaches the point where his dancers,
his washerwomen, his sketches of low hfe become
dangerously near being this themselves. His
79

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
composition, too, is so strikingly original that the
imitator must be careful lest he reproduce only
the master's eccentricities.
Everett Shinn, a young American artist, is the
possessor of an art presenting many different as
pects and showing influences that proclaim widely
diverging sympathies. There is the manner first
of all in which he affects Degas, and finds his in
spirations in the glamour of the music hall. Its
glare of conflicting lights and its outward ap
pearances he has faithfully recorded, but his gaze
is much less penetrating than that of the master
draughtsman, and we do not see the same un
flinching realism, brutality and cynicism wbich
underlies the art of Degas. Shinn has only gone
to Degas for inspiration, for ideas; not slavishly
and unintelligently to copy him. He has learnt
to see things from Degas' point of view; he
too now sees the artistic possibilities of the gas
lighted music hall. And Shinn has learnt another
thing from Degas; he has learned how to draw.
Look over his many portfolios of studies and
sketches made from the nude— ideas and sugges
tions executed with that congenial medium, red
chalk — and you will see drawings powerful in
their draughtsmanship, and brilliant in execu-
80

THE ART OF EVERETT SHINN
tion. The greatest charm attaching to these stud
ies, which are the most personal expression of
the artist's genius, hes however in their entire
freedom from all taint of the academic.
Shinn is a master of the pastel; he knows thor
oughly both the possibilities and the hmitations
of his medium. The material is never strained in
endeavoring to get too much out of it; and if
technically his pastels are great achievements,
pictorially are they also. The artist has given us
a set of works in pastel which give us very inti
mate portraits of the meaner streets— and some
times the house-tops— of New York and Paris,
pictures executed in amazingly alluring and har
monious colours that record to an extraordinary
degree the very atmosphere of the localities de
picted. Look at the picture which the artist has
called "Matinee Crowd, Broadway," a characteris
tic example of the artist's work. What movement
there is in this drawing! How the people are
scurrying along in the face of the snow and wintry
blast! How the snow sweeps and swirls up the
icy avenue! Also, what movement there is in the
pastel he has given us of a girl on a trapeze : she
is fairly swinging through the air!
In the two pastels entitled "A French Music
81

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
Hall" and "Outdoor Stage, France," we also
have admirable examples of the artist's work in
this direction. He has grasped and preserved the
very spirit and life of these scenes for our edifica
tion. Very real they are: we might almost imag
ine ourselves looking in upon the actual scene.
And now with growing frequency the artist
lays aside his intensely modern aspect of hfe, his
vivid visions, so comparatively free from illu
sions, and gives us in their stead pictures reflect
ing the artifice of about the most unreal age in
which art has ever flourished — the eighteenth
century in France.
Shinn has schooled himself well in the tradi
tions of this epoch, the period when an effete civil
ization seemed to reach a veritable climax. He
has also studied intelligently the perfect reflectors
of the age— I mean Watteau and his pupils,
Lancret and Pater, and his followers, Boucher
and Fragonard— and the results of his investiga
tions in this chapter of the contemporary chroni
cles are surprisingly fresh and vivacious, full of
character and vigor and far removed from mere
tedious and uninspired copies. The artist dis
plays much of the decorative instinct which is a
82

THE ART OF EVERETT SHINN
characteristic of almost all French art and which
in this particular group was always the para
mount feature: he also displays brilliant and
rapid brush work, and an abundance of gayety
and charm, hght, air, grace and clear colour.
Some time ago Shinn put a group of his paint
ings in oil on exhibition at a New York gallery,
and very interesting they proved to be. The artist
is still rather new to oils, and in consequence his
paintings are occasionally somewhat raw, but
they hold out every expectation for the future,
when he becomes more famihar with his medium.
Some French stage scenes done in this medium
are extremely clever, and a certain decorative
painting, which owes much to Fragonard, is a
notable bit of composition and colour. These
paintings are as vigorously executed as the pas
tels: they have the same daring colour schemes,
painted with a full and rapidly manipulated
brush, and yet they lack the spark of real genius
which has gone into the making of the pastels,
and which proclaim their maker an artist to be
reckoned with.

83

THE ENGLISH CARICATURISTS
The eighteenth century was a great period for
English art: in it flourished Gainsborough, Ho
garth, Reynolds, Romney and Hoppner, the only
great group of painters England has known, and
in addition the great master of the mezzotint, Bar-
tolozzi. Never before in her history had England
produced men of such talents— and she has not
seen their equal since.
England at the same time saw the rise of three
other great artists, possessing an order of genius
only secondary to the masters named, and possi
bly in some respects almost their equal. Every
bit as typical of the eighteenth century were the
great caricaturists Rowlandson, Bunbury and
Gillray. Taken together this was truly a galaxy
of genius sufficient to make a century notable —
nay, to make a nation justly proud of her achieve
ments in art!
The volume 1 which concerns itself with the work
of these caricaturists, contained in that interest-

1 The Eighteenth Century in Enghsh Caricature.
By Selwyn Brinton. 85

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
ing set of excursions into artistic byways, The
Langham Series, is a very engaging httle book.
In fact it proves to be a worthy successor to the
authoritative "Bartolozzi" and "Colour-Prints of
Japan," the entertaining, if not exhaustive, "Il
lustrators of Montmartre," and the thoughtfully
written "Rodin."
The author has classified his material into four
sections. We have a chapter on the Comedy of
Vice, as illustrated by the great Hogarth, whose
inclusion in this monograph seems to us a most
questionable choice, as Hogarth was above every
thing a satirist; on the Comedy of Society, as typ
ified by the elegant amateur, and very clever art
ist, Bunbury; on the Comedy of Pohtics, with
Gillray standing out prominently as the great
name; and on Life's Comedy, as seen by Row-
landson. Thomas Rowlandson is the greatest name in
Enghsh caricature. He was a perfect reflector of
the life and spirit of his age, a marvellous deline
ator of character, and the possessor, as our critic
says, of an "exquisite feeling for line," a line as
"subtle as anything Beardsley has recorded." As
a draughtsman he is the greatest of the entire
86

THE ENGLISH CARICATURISTS
group, superior to Gainsborough, Reynolds, and
all of them.
Rowlandson was much more than a caricatur
ist. His art, if it had been cultivated as it should
have been, would have in all probabihty, placed
him upon a level with his great contemporaries in
pamting ; but naturally extravagant and dissipa
ted, Rowlandson upon coming into a legacy
abandoned painting for the less arduous pursuit
of caricaturing. Glimpses of really great genius
are everywhere apparent in his drawings, but it is
in certain studies made comparatively early in his
career, some dehghtful landscapes for instance,
and others of "feminine loveliness" which Joseph
Grego says "have been mistaken for sketches by
Gainsborough or Morland" that we see what
Rowlandson might have done. But if Rowland-
son had been more ambitious the world would
not have gained one of her very greatest carica
turists.

87

CHILDE H ASS AM: A NOTE
A collection of Childe Hassam's works shown
in New York during December, 1906, for several
reasons was remarkably interesting. In the first
place, we saw that Mr. Hassam is not allowing
himseK to paint without first receiving fresh in
spirations, and that he is not, like so many artists
who have achieved great success in certain well de
fined fields, allowing his genius to degenerate into
a mere manufactory. Always is this artist's vision
fresh and virile, and his art is continually ad
vancing step by step to even greater heights. It is
exactly this that makes Hassam one of the most
interesting figures in the art world to-day, and
being a comparatively young man, no one can say
to just what heights his genius will eventually
carry him. Then, almost without exception, every
one of the twenty-five pictures which comprised
the group was a worthy example of the painter's
talent. Also, we were enabled to study the artist in
all his great variety of subject, including very
recent pictures, as well as in examples of bis work
in water-colour and pastel, in addition to the paint
ings in oils. Very important then, was this group
89

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
and quite adequate for a proper understanding
and study of the artist's merits.
Childe Hassam is beyond any doubt the great
est exponent of Impressionism in America, and
yet it is very rarely indeed that he accepts all the
teachings of the Impressionists. Momentary ef
fects produced by sunlight is usually his theme,
it is true, and equally true is it that he paints by
placing his colours in juxtaposition in order to
attain effects to be seen at a distance, but for the
scientific aspect of Impressionism, for the theo
ries of pure Impressionism, and for the employ
ment of only the colours of the spectrum, Has
sam seldom gives a thought. It would be inap
propriate, therefore, for us to go into this subject
at any more length, but the curious may be refer
red to some interesting extracts from several of
the greatest writers on Impressionism, i.e. Mac-
Coll, Chevreul, Brownell and Mauclair, given, in
an appendix to his "Impressionist Painting," by
Wynford Dewhurst.
The artist's personahty is always apparent in
his pictures to a marked degree, and a Hassam
may be as easily and unmistakably recognized as
a Whistler or a Degas. Not so with the work of
90

CHILDE HASSAM: A NOTE
his confreres: often we must look for the signa
ture before we can distinguish between a Monet,
a Pissarro, a Sisley— all painted from precisely
the same formulas.
National in character, as all art should be, and
in accordance with practically all the great mas
ters, whether or not they be "old," Hassam only
went to France to learn the technique of his art.
Above all he is typically American, and a painter
who never finds it necessary to leave New York
in winter, or certain spots of New England in
summer, to make a grand tour in search of the
picturesque, after the custom of the departed Dr.
Syntax. Hassam's street scenes in New York, and we
usually think of them as being enveloped in snow,
constitute one favorite phase of his work, while
another set of his pictures is that in which he de
lights to picture clumps of green trees and fields,
often bordering on a stream or a lake, or perched
high upon a rocky coast which drops precipi
tously into a peaceful blue sea made vivid by a
noonday sun. And very frequently in these pas
toral scenes we perceive a dryad or some other
fair bather sunning her rosy body, wonderful
93

WHISTLER: NOTES AND FOOTNOTES
with play of light, as she pauses a moment before
plunging into the hmpid turquoise water.
In this exhibition of Hassam's work the "June
Morning" is one of the artist's most engaging fig
ure pieces, and this picture of a girl with a hght
peignoir thrown over her shoulders standing be
fore the mirror in her boudoir, a summery land
scape being seen through an open window, forms
an interesting foil to the "Lorelei" exhibited sev
eral years ago— perhaps the most powerful nude
ever painted by the artist, and a picture in which
the rendering of the flesh seen outdoors under a
brilhant sun is unsurpassed. "Brooklyn Bridge,"
a very recent painting, is a marvellously beautiful
arrangement of opalescent tones. We look over
a curious conglomeration of house-tops covered
with snow, the great bridge looming up beyond.
The tonal quahties and the superb values in this
painting show a most decided advance in Has
sam's art. Among other recent examples of the
artist's work are the "Moonhght, off Ports
mouth," "The Church Nocturne— Old Lyme,"
"Moonhght in the Lane— Old Lyme" and "Noc
turne—The Crossing." These night effects mark
a new departure in Hassam's art and are quite
94

CHILDE HASSAM: A NOTE
successful, although the "Moonlight, off Ports
mouth," which was rather too obviously inspired
by Whistler, is not painted throughout in pre
cisely the correct tones— the tone of the sail on the
horizon, for instance, is distinctly jarring.
In the painting which the artist has entitled
"Shovelling Snow— New England," a reproduc
tion of which is given in this book, we have a very
characteristic and interesting example of Has
sam's work. His very successful rendering of
snow when coloured by luminous shadows and
play of sunshine, his very personal manner of
painting trees and woods, his somewhat awkward
figures, and his characteristic handling of pig
ment, almost as dry and as sparingly employed
as that of Raff aelli, are all evident in this canvas.

95

Of this book have been printed, in New York dur
ing December, 1906, and January, 1907, two hun
dred and fifty copies on French wove paper, seven
ty-five copies, numbered and signed, on Itahan
hand-made paper, and ten copies, also numbered
and signed, on Imperial Japanese vellum.

96

By the Same Writer
WHISTLER'S ART DICTA AND OTHER ESSAYS
With illustrations and facsimiles in line and photogravure.
Printed at The Merrymount Press in an edition limited
to 175 copies. Boston and London : 1904. (Out of print).
THE 0 UTLOOK. — This exquisite volume will be a valuable keepsake
to those who admire Whistler. It is remarkable, first, because of its
superb print, secondly, because of some remarkable facsimiles, and,
thirdly, because of a criticism which may well be a vade mecum to
those who would better understand Whistler.
THE LAMP. — A work of unquestionable value to all whose interests
include the two most conspicuous examples of originality in con
temporary illustration and art.
THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO.- It remains to add that the
little book is put out in the most charming style from a bibliographi
cal standpoint, and will undoubtedly be appreciated by bibliophiles.
THE COLLECTORS MAGAZINE (London).— Particularly inter
esting.TOWN AND CO UNTRY — Whistler admirers will treasure it.
BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT (§ column notice).— Replete
with entertaining marginalia and preservable material.
THE LITERARY COLLECTOR.— One of the most enthusiastic
collectors of Whistlerana in this country, and one of the most intelli
gent writers on his art, has published recently a dainty volume of
these papers, which deserve more than the passing form of the peri
odical. NEW YORE HERALD.— -This little book, whose title-page bears
the transparent initials of A. E. G., the American authority on
Whistler and Beardsley, contains not 'infinite riches,' for I am not
in an exaggerative mood, but a goodly competence of information
'in a little room.'
THE SPHERE (London).— A note of this exhibition (Whistler
Memorial at Boston) is contained in a book published under the title
' Whistler's Art Dicta ' by a great-grandson of Albert Gallatin, the
famous American statesman and financier who was at one time a
Minister to England and was directly descended from the family
which for so long governed Geneva. Altogether we have here a
dainty Uttle volume for the collector.

YALE UNIVERSITY

'051b