The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Part 14

8.--NOCTURNE RIVA.

"The Nocturne is intended to convey an impression of night."--_P. G.

Hamerton._

"The subject did not admit of any drawing."

_P. G. Hamerton._

"We have seen a great many representations of Venetian skies, but never saw one before consisting of brown smoke with clots of ink in diagonal lines."

9.--FRUIT STALL.

"The historical or poetical a.s.sociations of cities have little charm for Mr. Whistler and no place in his art."

10.--SAN GIORGIO.

"An artist of incomplete performance."

_F. Wedmore._

11.--THE DYER.

"By having as little to do as possible with tone and light and shade, Mr. Whistler evades great difficulties."--_P. G. Hamerton._

"All those theoretical principles of the art, of which we have heard so much from Messrs. Haden, Hamerton(?)[23] and Lalauze, are abandoned."

_St. James's Gazette._

[Note 23: "Calling me 'a Mr. Hamerton' does me no harm--but it is a breach of ordinary good manners in speaking of a well-known writer."

Yours obediently, P. G. HAMERTON.

Sept. 29, 1880. To the Editor of the _New York Tribune_.]

12.--NOCTURNE PALACES.

"Pictures in darkness are contradictions in terms."

_Literary World._

13.--THE DOORWAY.

"There is seldom in his Etchings any large arrangement of light and shade."--_P. G. Hamerton._

"Short, scratchy lines."--_St. James's Gazette._

"The architectural ornaments and the interlacing bars of the gratings are suggested rather than drawn."

_St. James's Gazette._

"Amateur prodige."--_Sat.u.r.day Review._

14.--LONG LAGOON.

"We think that London fogs and the muddy old Thames supply Mr.

Whistler's needle with subjects more congenial than do the Venetian palaces and lagoons."--_Daily News._

15.--TEMPLE.

"The work does not feel much."--_Times._

16.--LITTLE SALUTE.--(DRY-POINT.)

"As for the lucubrations of Mr. Whistler, they come like shadows and will so depart, _and it is unnecessary to disquiet one's self about them_."

17.--THE BRIDGE.

"These works have been done with a swiftness and dash that precludes anything like care and finish."

"These Etchings of Mr. Whistler's are nothing like so satisfactory as his earlier Chelsea ones; they neither convey the idea of s.p.a.ce nor have they the delicacy of handling and treatment which we see in those."

"He looked at Venice never in detail."

_F. Wedmore._

18.--WOOL CARDERS.

"They have a merit of their own, and I do not wish to understand it."[24]--_F. Wedmore._

[Note 24: Mr. Wedmore is the lucky discoverer of the following:--

"Vigour and exquisiteness are denied--are they not?--even to a Velasquez"!]