The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Part 43

22.--ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND BROWN.

MISS ROSA CORDER.

_Lent by Graham Robertson, Esq._

"It is bad enough, in all conscience, to be caricatured by the gifted pencil and brushes of the admirable Whistler; and it is surely adding insult to injury to describe the victims and sufferers as 'Arrangements.' With regard to Mr. Whistler's Symphonies, Harmonies, and so on, we will relate a parable. Here it is:--A lively young donkey sang a sweet love song to the dawn, and so disturbed all the neighbourhood, that the neighbours went to the donkey and begged him to desist. He continued his braying for some time, and then ended with what appeared, to his own ears, a flourish of surpa.s.sing brilliancy.

"Will you be good enough to give over that hideous noise?" said the neighbours.

"'Good Olympus!' said the donkey, 'did you say hideous noise? Why, that is a "Symphony," which means a concord of sweet sounds, as you may see by referring to any dictionary.'

"'But,' said the neighbours, 'we do _not_ think that "Symphony" is the word to describe your performance. "Cacophony" would be more correct, and that means "a bad set of sounds."'

"'How absurdly you talk!' said the donkey. 'I will refer it to my fellow-a.s.ses, and let them decide.'

"The donkeys decided that the young donkey's song was a most symphonious and harmonious, sweet song; so he continues to bray as melodiously as ever. There is, we believe, a moral to this parable, if we only knew what it was. Perhaps the piercing eye of the '_Nocturnal_ Whistler' may find it out."--_Echo._

"Miss Rosa Corder, and Mr. H. Irving as Philip, are two large blotches of dark canvas. When I have time I am going again to find out which is Rose and which is Irving.

"The rest of the collection is marred by the impatience which has prevented his achieving any finished work of Art."--_Weekly Press._

23.--"HARMONY IN GREY AND GREEN."

PORTRAIT OF MISS ALEXANDER.

_Lent by W. Alexander, Esq._

"A sketch of Miss Alexander, in which much must be imagined."--_Standard._

"There is character in it, but it is unpleasant character. Of anything like real flesh tones the painting is quite innocent."--_Builder._

"But what can we say of Mr. Whistler? His portrait of Miss Alexander is certainly one of the strangest and most eccentric specimens of Portraiture we ever saw. If we were unacquainted with his singular theories of Art, we should imagine he had merely made a sketch and left it, before the colours were dry, in a room where chimney-sweeps were at work.... n.o.body who sets any value upon the roses and lilies that adorn the cheeks of our blooming girls can accept such murky tints as these as representative of a young English lady"--_Era._

"It is simply a disagreeable presentment of a disagreeable young lady."--_Liverpool Weekly Mercury._

"Mr. Whistler again appears on the walls with a characteristic full-length life-size portrait of a girl, Miss Alexander.

"This work is devoid of colour, being arranged in Black and White and intermediate tones of grey. The general effect is dismal in the extreme, and one cannot but wonder how an artist of undoubted talent should wilfully persist in such perversities of judgment."--_Western Daily Mercury._

"Miss Alexander, almost in Black and White, and about the most unattractive piece of work in the Galleries."--_Edinburgh Daily Review._

"A 'gruesomeness in Grey.'

"Well, bless thee, J. Whistler! We do not hanker after your brush system. Farewell!"--_Punch._

"'AN ARRANGEMENT IN SILVER AND BILE.'

"The artist has represented this bilious young lady as looking haughty in a dirty white dress, a grey polonaise, bound by a grey green sash, a grey hat, with the most unhealthy green feather; furthermore, she wears black shoes with green bows, and stands defiantly on a grey floor cloth, opposite a grey wall with a black dado. Two dyspeptic b.u.t.terflies hover wearily above her head in search _of a bit of colour_ ... evidently losing heart at the grey expanse around.... A picture should charm, not depress, it should tend to elevate our thoughts!"--_Society._

"This picture represents a child of ten, and is called a harmony in grey and green, but the prevailing tone is a rather unpleasant yellow, and the complexion of the face is wholly unchildlike."--_Echo._

"A large etching in oil, a 'Rhapsody in Raw Child and Cobwebs,' by Mr.

Whistler."--_Artist._

"Mr. Whistler is as spectral as ever in an unattractive portrait of an awkward little girl, happily not rendered additionally ridiculous by a musical t.i.tle."

_Bedford Observer._

"Flattery is objectionable in art as elsewhere, but some portrait painters seem to find it impossible to tell the truth without being rude."--_Academy._

"Mr. Whistler has a portrait of a young lady that excites absolute astonishment.

"What charm can there be in such colours as these? What effect do they produce which would not have been better by warmer and less repulsive tints?"

_Leeds Mercury._

"Mr. Whistler's single contribution is a child's portrait, posed and painted in a rather distant, if obsequious, imitation of the manner of Velasquez, the great difference being that whereas the Spaniard's work is most remarkable for supreme distinction, the present portrait is uncompromisingly vulgar."

_Magazine of Art._

24.--NOCTURNE.

BLUE AND SILVER--BOGNOR.

_Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq._

"We protest against those foppish airs and affectations by which Mr.

Whistler impresses on us his contempt of public opinion. In landscape he contributes what he persists in calling a Nocturne in 'Blue and Silver,' and a Nocturne in 'Black and Gold' which is a mere insult to the intelligence of his admirers. It is very difficult to believe that Mr. Whistler is not openly laughing at us."--_Pall Mall Gazette._

25.--NOCTURNE.