The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Part 40

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

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

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

_Lent by Louis Huth, Esq._

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

_P. G. Hamerton, "Sat.u.r.day Review."_

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

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

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

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

3.--CHELSEA IN ICE.

_Lent by Madame Venturi._

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

4.--NOCTURNE.

BLUE AND GOLD--OLD BATTERSEA BRIDGE.

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

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

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

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

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

PURPLE AND ROSE.

_Lent by J. Leathart._

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

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

_Reader._

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

_&c._...

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

6.--NOCTURNE.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE--SNOW.

_Lent by Albert Moore, Esq._

"The word 'impressionist' has come to have a bad meaning in art.

Visions of Whistler come before you when you hear it. Such visions are not of the best possible augury, for who loves a nightmare?"

_Oracle._

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

7.--NOCTURNE--BLACK AND GOLD.

THE FIRE WHEEL.

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

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

8.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND BROWN.

THE FUR JACKET.

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

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