LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
G., after an etching, refers to the Grolier Club Catalogue of Whistler's Etchings, 1910
W., after a lithograph, refers to Mr. T. R. Way's Catalogue of Whistler's Lithographs, 1905
| Page | |
| Portrait of the Artist (By Himself) (Oil) | [Frontispiece] |
| In the George McCulloch Collection | |
| Portrait of Whistler as a Boy (By Sir William Boxall) (Oil) | [12] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| The Two Brothers (Miniature) | [12] |
| Lent by Miss Emma Palmer; formerly in the possession of Mrs. GeorgeD. Stanton and Miss Emma W. Palmer | |
| Bibi Lalouette (Etching. G. 51) | [20] |
| Street at Saverne (Etching. G. 19) | [20] |
| From the "French Set" | |
| La Mère Gérard (Oil) | [24] |
| In the possession of William Heinemann | |
| Head of an Old Man Smoking (Oil) | [24] |
| In the Musée du Luxembourg | |
| Portrait of Whistler (Etching. G. 54) | [40] |
| Sketches of the Journey to Alsace (Pen Drawings) | [40] |
| Portrait of Whistler in the Big Hat (Oil) | [44] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Drouet (Etching. G. 55) | [44] |
| At the Piano (Oil) | [52] |
| In the possession of Edmund Davis, Esq. | |
| Wapping (Oil) | [52] |
| In the possession of Mrs. Hutton | |
| The Thames in Ice, the Twenty-fifth of December 1860 (Oil) | [60] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Rotherhithe (Etching. G. 66) | [60] |
| From the "Sixteen Etchings" | |
| The Music Room—Harmony in Green and Rose (Oil) | [68] |
| In the possession of Colonel F. Hecker | |
| Annie Haden (Dry-Point. G. 62) | [68] |
| The White Girl—Symphony in White, No. I. (Oil) | [76] |
| In the possession of J. H. Whittemore, Esq. | |
| Jo (Dry-Point. G. 77) | [76] |
| The Blue Wave (Oil) | [84] |
| In the possession of A. A. Pope, Esq. | |
| The Forge (Dry-Point. G. 68) | [84] |
| From the "Sixteen Etchings" | |
| The Morning before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew | [92] |
| (Wood-Engraving from "Once a Week," vol vii. p. 210) | |
| The Last of Old Westminster (Oil) | [92] |
| In the possession of A. A. Pope, Esq. | |
| Portrait of Whistler (By Himself) (Chalk Drawing) | [104] |
| Formerly in the possession of Thomas Way, Esq. | |
| Weary (Dry-Point. G. 92) | [104] |
| Study in Chalk for the Same | |
| Formerly in the possession of B. B. MacGeorge, Esq. | |
| The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks—Purple and Rose (Oil) | [108] |
| In the J. G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia | |
| The Balcony—Harmony in Flesh-Colour and Green (Oil) | [108] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine—Rose and Silver (Oil) | [112] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Variations in Violet and Green (Oil) | [112] |
| In the possession of Sir Charles McLaren, Bart. | |
| The Little White Girl—Symphony in White, No. II. (Oil) | [124] |
| In the National Gallery, London | |
| Portrait of Dr. Whistler (Oil) | [124] |
| In the possession of Burton Mansfield, Esq. | |
| Valparaiso Bay—Nocturne: Blue and Gold (Oil) | [132] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Symphony in White, No. III. (Oil) | [132] |
| In the possession of Edmund Davis, Esq. | |
| Whistler's Table Palette (Photograph) | [144] |
| In the possession of Mrs. Newmarch | |
| Sea Beach with Figures (Study for the Six Projects) (Pastel) | [144] |
| The Three Figures—Pink and Grey (Oil) | [144] |
| In the possession of Alfred Chapman, Esq. | |
| Nocturne—Blue and Green (Oil) | [148] |
| In the National Gallery, London | |
| Nocturne—Blue and Silver (Oil) | [148] |
| In the possession of the Executors of Mrs. F. R. Leyland | |
| The Mother—Arrangement in Grey and Black (Oil) | [160] |
| In the Musée du Luxembourg | |
| Portrait of Thomas Carlyle—Arrangement in Grey and Black,No II.(Oil) | [160] |
| In the Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow | |
| Portrait of Cicely Henrietta, Miss Alexander—Harmony in Grey and Green (Oil) | [164] |
| In the National Gallery, London | |
| Portrait of F. R. Leyland—Arrangement in Black (Oil) | [164] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Portrait of Mrs. F. R. Leyland—Symphony in Flesh-Colour and Pink (Oil) | [172] |
| In the possession of H. C. Finck, Esq. | |
| Portrait of Miss Leyland (Pastel) | [172] |
| In the possession of the Executors of Mrs. F. R. Leyland | |
| Portrait of Mrs. Louis Huth—Arrangement in Black, No. II. (Oil) | [180] |
| In the possession of the Executors of the Family | |
| Fanny Leyland (Study for the Etching. G. 108) (Pencil Sketch) | [180] |
| Formerly in the possession of J. H. Wrenn, Esq. | |
| Whistler in his Studio (Oil) | [196] |
| In the Chicago Art Institute | |
| Maud Standing (Etching. G. 114) | [196] |
| Portrait of Sir Henry Irving as Philip II. of Spain—Arrangement in Black, No. III. (Oil) | [200] |
| In the Metropolitan Museum, New York | |
| Portrait of Sir Henry Cole (Oil) (Destroyed) | [200] |
| From a photograph lent by Pickford R. Waller, Esq. | |
| Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder—Arrangement in Black and Brown | [208] |
| In the possession of H. C. Finck, Esq. | |
| The Peacock Room (Photograph) | [208] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Drawing in Wash for "A Catalogue of Blue and White NankinPorcelain, forming the Collection of Sir Henry Thompson."London: Ellis and White. 1878 | [216] |
| In the possession of Pickford R. Waller, Esq. | |
| Study (Lithotint. W. 2) | [216] |
| From a print lent by T. R. Way, Esq. | |
| Tall Bridge (Lithograph. W. 9) | [224] |
| From a print lent by T. R. Way, Esq. | |
| Nocturne (Lithotint. W. 5) | [224] |
| From "Notes" published by Goupil From a print lent by T. R. Way, Esq. | |
| Old Battersea Bridge—Nocturne in Blue and Gold (Oil) | [232] |
| In the National Gallery of British Art, Tate Gallery | |
| The Falling Rocket—Nocturne in Black and Gold (Oil) | [232] |
| In the possession of Mrs. S. Untermeyer | |
| The Bridge (Etching. G. 204) | [244] |
| From the "Second Venice Set" By the permission of Messrs. Dowdeswell | |
| The Doorway (Etching. G. 188) | [244] |
| From the "First Venice Set" By the permission of the Fine Art Society | |
| The Beggars (Etching. G. 194) | [252] |
| From the "First Venice Set" By permission of the Fine Art Society | |
| The Rialto (Etching. G. 211) | [252] |
| From the "Second Venice Set" By the permission of Messrs. Dowdeswell | |
| Portraits of Maud (Oil) (Destroyed) | [258] |
| From photographs lent by Pickford R. Waller, Esq. | |
| Jubilee Memorial from the Society of British Artists to QueenVictoria, 1887 (Illumination) | [258] |
| In the Royal Collection at Windsor | |
| Portrait of Lady Meux—Harmony in Pink and Grey (Oil) | [268] |
| In the possession of H. C. Finck, Esq. | |
| The Salute, Venice (Water-Colour) | [268] |
| In the possession of B. B. MacGeorge, Esq. | |
| The Yellow Buskin—Arrangement in Black (Oil) | [276] |
| In the Wilstach Collection, Memorial Hall, Philadelphia | |
| Portrait of M. Théodore Duret—Arrangement in Flesh-Colour and Pink (Oil) | [276] |
| In the Metropolitan Museum, New York | |
| Portrait of Pablo Sarasate—Arrangement in Black (Oil) | [304] |
| In the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh | |
| Portrait of Lady Colin Campbell—Harmony in White and Ivory (Oil) (Destroyed) | [304] |
| From a photograph lent by Pickford R. Waller, Esq. | |
| Annabel Lee (Pastel) | [312] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| The Convalescent (Water-Colour) | [312] |
| In the possession of Dr. J. W. MacIntyre | |
| Portrait of Miss Kinsella—The Iris, Rose and Green (Oil) | [328] |
| In the possession of Miss Kinsella | |
| Whistler at his Printing Press in the Studio,Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris | [328] |
| From a photograph by M. Dornac | |
| Illustration to Little Johannes Portrait of a Lady (Drawings on Wood) | [336] |
| In the Pennell Collection, Library of Congress, Washington | |
| Water-Colour Landscape | [336] |
| Loaned by Mrs. Mortimer Menpes | |
| The Master Smith of Lyme Regis (Oil) | [340] |
| In the Boston Museum of Fine Arts | |
| The Smith, Passage du Dragon (Lithograph. W. 73) | [340] |
| Portrait of Mrs. A. J. Cassatt | [344] |
| The Beach (Water-Colour) | [344] |
| In the possession of Mrs. Knowles | |
| Shop Window at Dieppe (Water-Colour) | [344] |
| The Thames (Lithotint. W. 125) | [348] |
| Firelight—Joseph Pennell, No. I. (Lithograph. W. 104) | [348] |
| From "Lithography and Lithographers"By the permission of T. Fisher Unwin, Esq. | |
| Study in Brown (Oil) | [356] |
| In the possession of the Baroness de Meyer | |
| Study of the Nude (Pen Drawing) | [356] |
| In the possession of William Heinemann, Esq. | |
| The Little Blue Bonnet—Blue and Coral (Oil) | [360] |
| Formerly in the possession of Wm. Heinemann, Esq. | |
| Rose and Gold—Little Lady Sophie of Soho (Oil) | [360] |
| In the Charles L. Freer Collection, National Gallery of American Art | |
| Model with Flowers (Pastel) | [368] |
| In the possession of J. P. Heseltine, Esq. | |
| Girl with a Red Feather (Oil) | [368] |
| In the possession of the Executors of J. Staats Forbes | |
| A Freshening Breeze (Oil) | [376] |
| In the possession of J. S. Ure, Esq. | |
| Lillie in Our Alley—Brown and Gold (Oil) | [376] |
| In the possession of J. J. Cowan, Esq. | |
| The Sea, Pourville (Oil) | [388] |
| In the possession of A. A. Hannay, Esq. | |
| The Coast of Brittany—Alone with the Tide (Oil) | [388 ] |
| Formerly in the possession of Ross Winans, Esq. | |
| The Fur Jacket—Arrangement in Black and Brown (Oil) | [388] |
| Picture in Progress:From a photograph lent by Pickford R. Waller, Esq. Completed Picture:In the Worcester Museum, Massachusetts | |
| Portrait of Mrs. Walter Sickert | [404] |
| In the possession of Mrs. Cobden-Sanderson | |
| Portrait of Miss Woakes | [404] |
| In the possession of Messrs. Knvedler and Co. | |
| The Chelsea Girl | [416] |
| Portrait of E. S. Kennedy | [416] |
| In the Metropolitan Museum, New York | |
| Gallery at the London Memorial Exhibition | [428] |
| Gallery at the Boston Memorial Exhibition | [428] |
| Whistler's Grave in Chiswick Cemetery adjoiningChiswick Churchyard | [428] |
| Monument in Whistler's Memory at the United States MilitaryAcademy at West Point | [428] |
CHAPTER I: THE WHISTLER FAMILY.
THE YEARS EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-THREE.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born on July 10, 1834, at Lowell, Massachusetts, in the United States of America.
Whistler, in the witness-box during the suit he brought against Ruskin in 1878, gave St. Petersburg as his birthplace—or the reporters did—and he never denied it. Baltimore was given by M. Théodore Duret in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April 1881), and M. Duret's mistake, since corrected by him, has been many times repeated. The late Mrs. Livermore, who knew Whistler as a child at Lowell, asked him why he did not contradict this. His answer was: "If any one likes to think I was born in Baltimore, why should I deny it? It is of no consequence to me!" On entering West Point he stated that Massachusetts was his place of birth. But, as a rule, he met any one indiscreet enough to question him on the subject as he did the American who came up to him one evening in the Carlton Hotel, London, and by way of introduction said, "You know, Mr. Whistler, we were both born at Lowell, and at very much the same time. There is only the difference of a year—you are sixty-seven and I am sixty-eight." "And I told him," said Whistler, from whom we had the story the next day, "'Very charming! And so you are sixty-eight and were born at Lowell! Most interesting, no doubt, and as you please! But I shall be born when and where I want, and I do not choose to be born at Lowell, and I refuse to be sixty-seven!'"
Whistler was christened at St. Anne's Church, Lowell, November 9, 1834. "Baptized, James Abbott, infant son of George Washington and Anna Mathilda Whistler: Sponsors, the parents. Signed, T. Edson"; so it is recorded in the church register. He was named after James Abbott, of Detroit, who had married his father's elder sister, Sarah Whistler. McNeill (his mother's name) was added shortly after he entered West Point. Abbott he always kept for legal and official documents. But, eventually, he dropped it for other purposes, "J. A. M." pleasing him no better than "J. A. W.," and he signed himself "James McNeill Whistler" or "J. M. N. Whistler."
The Rev. Rose Fuller Whistler, in his Annals of an English Family (1887), says that John le Wistler de Westhannye (1272-1307) was the founder of the family. Most of the Whistlers lived in Goring, Whitchurch, or Oxford, and are buried in many a church and churchyard of the Thames Valley. Brasses and tablets to the memory of several are in the church of St. Mary at Goring: one to "Hugh Whistler, the son of Master John Whistler of Goring, who departed this life the 17 Day of Januarie Anno Dominie 1675 being aged 216 years"—an amazing statement, but there it is in the parish church durable as brass can make it, and it would have delighted Whistler. The solemn antiquary, however, has decided that the 21 is only a badly cut 4. This remarkable ancestor figures as a family ghost at Gatehampton, where he is said to have been buried with his money, and there he still walks, guarding the treasure he lived so many years to gather. The position of the Whistlers entitled them to a coat of arms, described in the Harleian MSS., No. 1556, and thus in Gwillim's Heraldry: "Gules, five mascles, in bend between two Talbots passant argent"; and the motto "Forward."
The men were mostly soldiers and parsons. A few made names for themselves. The shield of Gabriel Whistler, of Combe, Sussex, is one of six in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Anthony Whistler, poet, friend of Shenstone, belonged to the Whitchurch family. Dr. Daniel Whistler (1619-1684), of the Essex branch, was a Fellow of Merton, an original Fellow of the Royal Society, a member and afterwards President of the College of Physicians, friend of Evelyn and Pepys. Evelyn often met him in "select companie" at supper, and once "Din'd at Dr. Whistler's at the Physicians Colledge," and found him not only learned but "the most facetious man in nature," the legitimate ancestor of Whistler. Pepys, who also dined and supped with him many times, pronounced him "good company and a very ingenious man." He fell under a cloud with the officials of the College of Physicians, and his portrait has been consigned to a back stairway of the Hall in Pall Mall. In the seventeenth century Ralph Whistler, of the Salters' Company, London, was one of the colonisers of Ulster, and Francis Whistler was a settler of Virginia. When Whistler saw the name "Francis Whistler, Gentleman," in the Genesis of the United States, he said to us, "There is an ancestor, with the hall-mark F.F.V. [First Families of Virginia], who tickles my American snobbery, and washes out the taint of Lowell."
The American Whistlers are descended from John Whistler of the Irish branch. In his youth he ran away and enlisted. Sir Kensington Whistler, an English cousin, was an officer in the same regiment, and objected to having a relative in the ranks. John Whistler, therefore, was transferred to another regiment starting for the American colonies. He arrived in time to surrender at Saratoga with Burgoyne. He went back to England, received his discharge, eloped with Anna, daughter of Sir Edward Bishop or Bischopp, and, returning to America, settled at Hagerstown, Maryland. He again enlisted, this time in the United States army. He rose to the brevet rank of major and served in the war of 1812 against Great Britain. He was stationed at Fort Dearborn, which he helped to build, and Fort Wayne. According to Mr. A. J. Eddy (Recollections and Impressions of Whistler), Whistler once said to a visitor from Chicago:
"Chicago, dear me, what a wonderful place! I really ought to visit it some day; for, you know, my grandfather founded the city, and my uncle was the last commander of Fort Dearborn!"
In 1815, upon the reduction of the army, Major John Whistler was retired. He died in 1817, at Bellefontaine, Missouri. Of his fifteen children, three sons are remembered as soldiers, and three daughters married army officers. George Washington, the most distinguished son, was the father of James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
George Washington Whistler was born on May 19, 1800, at Fort Wayne. He was educated mostly at Newport, Kentucky; and from Kentucky, when a little over fourteen, he received his appointment to the Military Academy, West Point, where he is remembered for his gaiety. Mr. George L. Vose, his biographer, and others tell stories that might have been told of his son. One is of some breach of discipline, for which he was made to bestride a gun on the campus. As he sat there he saw, coming towards him, the Miss Swift he was before long to marry. Out came his handkerchief, and, leaning over the gun, he set to work cleaning it so carefully that he was "honoured, not disgraced," in her eyes. He was number one in drawing, and his playing on the flute won him the nickname "Pipes." He graduated on July 1, 1819. He was appointed second lieutenant in the First Artillery, and, in 1829, first lieutenant in the Second Artillery. He served on topographical duty, and for a few months he was assistant professor at the Academy. There was not much fighting for American officers of his generation. But railroads were being built, and so few were the civil engineers that West Point graduates were allowed by Government to work for private corporations, and he was employed on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Baltimore and Susquehanna, and the Paterson and Hudson River. For the Baltimore and Ohio he went to England in 1828 to examine the railway system. He was building the line from Stonington to Providence, when, in 1833, he resigned from the army with the rank of major, to carry on his profession as a civil engineer.
In the meanwhile Major Whistler had married twice. His first wife was Mary Swift, daughter of Dr. Foster Swift, of the United States army. She left three children: George, who became a well known civil engineer; Joseph, who died in youth; and Deborah, Lady Haden. His second wife was Anna Mathilda McNeill, daughter of Dr. Charles Donald McNeill, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and sister of William Gibbs McNeill, a West Point classmate and an associate in Major Whistler's engineering work. The McNeills were descended from the McNeills of Skye. Their chief, Donald, emigrated with sixty of his clan to North Carolina in 1746, and bought land on Cape Fear River. Charles Donald McNeill was his grandson and was twice married; his second wife, Martha Kingsley, was the mother of Anna Mathilda McNeill, who became Mrs. George Washington Whistler. The McNeills were related by marriage to the Fairfaxes and other Virginia families, and Whistler, on his mother's side, was the Southerner he loved to call himself.
In 1834 Major Whistler accepted the post of engineer of locks and canals at Lowell, and to this town he brought his family. There, in the Paul Moody House on Worthen Street, James McNeill Whistler was born, and the house is now a Whistler Memorial Museum. Two years later the second son, William Gibbs McNeill, was born. In 1837 Major Whistler moved to Stonington, Connecticut, and Miss Emma W. Palmer and Mrs. Dr. Stanton, his wife's nieces, still remember his "pleasant house on Main Street." It is said that he had a chaise fitted with car wheels in which he and his family drove every Sunday on the tracks to church at Westerly; also that a locomotive named Whistler was in use on the road until recently. He was consulted in regard to many new lines, among them the Western Railroad of Massachusetts, for which he was consulting engineer from 1836 to 1840. In 1840 he was made chief engineer, and he removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he lived in the Ethan Chapin Homestead on Chestnut Street, north of Edward Street. A third son, Kirk Booth, born at Stonington in 1838, died at Springfield in 1842, and here a fourth son, Charles Donald, was born in 1841.
In 1842 Nicholas I. of Russia sent a commission, under Colonel Melnikoff, round Europe and America to find the best method and the best man to build a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and they chose the American, George Washington Whistler. The honour was great and the salary large, 12,000 dollars a year. He accepted, and started for Russia in Midsummer 1842, leaving his family at Stonington.
The life of a child, for the first nine years or so, is not of much interest to any save his parents. An idea can be formed of Whistler's early training. His father was a West Point man, with all that is fine in the West Point tradition. Mrs. Whistler, described as "one of the saints upon earth," was as strict as a Puritan. Dr. Whistler—Willie—often told his wife of the dread with which he and Jimmie looked forward to Saturday afternoon, with its overhauling of clothes, emptying of pockets, washing of heads, putting away of toys, and preparation for Sunday, when the Bible was the only book they read. Of the facts of his childhood there are few to record. Mrs. Livermore remembered his baby beauty, so great that her father used to say "it was enough to make Sir Joshua Reynolds come out of his grave and paint Jemmie asleep." In his younger years he was called Jimmie, Jemmie, Jamie, James, and Jim, and we use these names as we have found them in the letters written to us and the books quoted. Mrs. Livermore dwelt on the child's beautiful hands, "which belong to so many of the Whistlers." When she returned to Lowell in 1836 from the Manor School at York, England, Mrs. Whistler's son, Willie, had just been born:
"As soon as Mrs. Whistler was strong enough, she sent for me to go and see her boy, and I did see her and her baby in bed! And then I asked, 'Where is Jemmie, of whom I have heard so much?' She replied, 'He was in the room a short time since, and I think he must be here still.' So I went softly about the room till I saw a very small form prostrate and at full length on the shelf under the dressing-table, and I took hold of an arm and a leg and placed him on my knee, and then said, 'What were you doing, dear, under the table?' 'I'se drawrin',' and in one very beautiful little hand he held the paper, in the other the pencil."
The pencil drawings which we have seen, owned by Mrs. Livermore, are curiously firm and strong for a child of four.
CHAPTER II: IN RUSSIA.
THE YEARS EIGHTEEN FORTY-THREE TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE.
In 1843, when Whistler was nine years old, Major Whistler sent for his wife and children. Mrs. Whistler sailed from Boston in the Arcadia, August 12, 1843, taking with her Deborah and the three boys, James, William, and Charles. George Whistler, Major Whistler's eldest son, and her "good maid Mary" went with them. The story of their journey and their life in Russia is recorded in Mrs. Whistler's journal.
They arrived at Liverpool on the 29th of the same month. Mrs. Whistler's two half-sisters, Mrs. William Winstanley and Miss Alicia McNeill, lived at Preston, and there they stayed a fortnight. Then, after a few days in London, they sailed for Hamburg.
There was no railroad from Hamburg, so they drove by carriage to Lübeck, by stage to Travemünde, where they took the steamer Alexandra for St. Petersburg, and George Whistler left them. Between Travemünde and Cronstadt, Charles, the youngest child, fell ill of seasickness and died within a day. There was just time to bury him at Cronstadt—temporarily; he was afterwards buried at Stonington—and his death saddened the meeting between Major Whistler and his wife and children.
Mrs. Whistler objected to hotels and to boarding, and a house was found in the Galernaya. She did her best to make it not only a comfortable, but an American home, for Major Whistler's attachment to his native land, she said, was so strong as to be almost a religious sentiment. Their food was American, American holidays were kept in American fashion. Many of their friends were Americans. Major Whistler was nominally consulting engineer to Colonel Melnikoff, but actually in charge of the construction and equipment of the line, and as the material was supplied by the firm of Winans of Baltimore, Mr. Winans and his partners, Messrs. Harrison and Eastwick, of Philadelphia, were in Russia with their families.
Mrs. Whistler's strictness did not mean opposition to pleasure. Yet at times she became afraid that her boys were not "keeping to the straight and narrow way." There were evenings of illuminations that put off bedtime; there were afternoons of skating and coasting; Christmas gaieties, with Christmas dinners of roast turkey and pumpkin pie; visits to American friends; parties at home, when the two boys "behaved like gentlemen, and their father commended them upon it"; there were presents of guns from the father, returning from long absences on the road; there were dancing lessons, which Jemmie would have done anything rather than miss.
Whistler as a boy was exactly what those who knew him as a man would expect; gay and bright, absorbed in his work when that work was art, brave and fearless, selfish if selfishness is another name for ambition, considerate and kindly, above all to his mother. The boy, like the man, was delightful to those who understood him; "startling," "alarming," to those who did not.
Mrs. Whistler's journal soon becomes extremely interesting:
March 29 (1844). "I must not omit recording our visiting the Gastinnoi to-day in anticipation of Palm Sunday. Our two boys were most excited, Jemmie's animation roused the wonder of many, for even in crowds here such decorum and gravity prevails that it must be surprising when there is any ebullition of joy."
April 22 (1844). "Jemmie is confined to his bed with a mustard plaster on his throat; he has been very poorly since the thawing season commenced, soon becoming overheated, takes cold; when he complained of pain first in his shoulder, then in his side, my fears of a return of last year's attack made me tremble, and when I gaze upon his pale face sleeping, contrasted to Willie's round cheeks, my heart is full; our dear James said to me the other day, so touchingly, 'Oh, I am sorry the Emperor ever asked father to come to Russia, but if I had the boys here, I should not feel so impatient to get back to Stonington,' yet I cannot think the climate here affects his health; Willie never was as stout in his native land, and James looks better than when we brought him here. At eight o'clock I am often at my reading or sewing without a candle, and I cannot persuade James to put up his drawing and go to bed while it is light."
The journal explains that Whistler as a boy suffered from severe rheumatic attacks that added to the weakness of his heart, the eventual cause of his death. Major and Mrs. Whistler rented a country-house on the Peterhoff Road in the spring of 1844. There is an account of a day at Tsarskoé Seló, when Colonel Todd, American Minister to Russia, showed them the Palace:
May 6 (1844). "Rode to the station, and took the cars upon the only railroad in Russia, which took us the twenty versts to the pretty town. It would be ungenerous in me to remark how inferior the railroad, cars, &c., seemed to us Americans. The boys were delighted with it all. Jemmie wished he could stay to examine the fine pictures and know who painted them, but as I returned through the grounds I asked him if he should wish to be a grand duke and own it all for playgrounds: he decided there could be no freedom with a footman at his heels."
July 1 (1844). "... I went with Willie to do some shopping in the Nevski. He is rather less excitable than Jemmie, and therefore more tractable. They each can make their wants known in Russ., but I prefer this gentlest of my dear boys to go with me. We had hardly reached home when a tremendous shower came up, and Jemmie and a friend, who had been out in a boat on a canal at the end of our avenue, got well drenched. Just as we were seated at tea, a carriage drove up and Mr. Miller entered, introducing Sir William Allen, the great Scotch artist, of whom we have heard lately, who has come to St. Petersburg to revive on canvas some of the most striking events from the life of Peter the Great. They had been to the monastery to listen to the chanting at vespers in the Greek chapel. Mr. Miller congratulated his companion on being in the nick of time for our excellent home-made bread and fresh butter, but, above all, the refreshment of a good cup of tea. His chat then turned upon the subject of Sir William Allen's painting of Peter the Great teaching the mujiks to make ships. This made Jemmie's eyes express so much interest that his love for art was discovered, and Sir William must needs see his attempts. When my boys had said good night, the great artist remarked to me, 'Your little boy has uncommon genius, but do not urge him beyond his inclination.' I told him his gift had only been cultivated as an amusement, and that I was obliged to interfere, or his application would confine him more than we approved."
Of these attempts there remain few examples. One is the portrait of his aunt Alicia McNeill, who visited them in Russia in 1844, sent to Mrs. Palmer at Stonington, with the inscription: "James to Aunt Kate." In a letter to Mrs. Livermore, written in French, when he was ten or eleven, "he enclosed some pretty pen-and-ink drawings, each on a separate bit of paper, and each surrounded by a frame of his own designing." He told us he could remember wonderful things he had done during the years in Russia. Once, he said, when on a holiday in London with his father, he was not well, and was given a hot foot-bath, and he could never forget how he sat looking at his foot, and then got paper and colours and set to work to make a study of it, "and in Russia," he added, "I was always doing that sort of thing."
July 4 (1844). "I have given my boys holiday to celebrate the Independence of their country.... This morning Jemmie began relating anecdotes from the life of Charles XII. of Sweden, and rather upbraided me that I could not let him do as that monarch had done at seven years old—manage a horse! I should have been at a loss how to afford my boys a holiday, with a military parade to-day, but there was an encampment of cadets, about two estates off, and they went with Colonel T.'s sons to see them."
July 10 (1844). "A poem selected by my darling Jamie and put under my plate at the breakfast-table, as a surprise on his tenth birthday. I shall copy it, that he may be reminded of his happy childhood when perhaps his grateful mother is not with him."
August 20 (1844). "... Jemmie is writing a note to his Swedish tutor on his birthday. Jemmie loves him sincerely and gratefully. I suppose his partiality to this Swede makes him espouse his country's cause and admire the qualities of Charles XII. so greatly to the prejudice of Peter the Great. He has been quite enthusiastic while reading the life of this King of Sweden, this summer, and too willing to excuse his errors."
August 23 (1844). "I wish I could describe the gardens at Peterhoff where we were invited to drive to-day. The fountains are, perhaps, the finest in the world. The water descends in sheets over steps, all the heathen deities presiding. Jemmie was delighted with the figure of Samson tearing open the jaws of the lion, from which ascends a jet d'eau one hundred feet.... There are some fine pictures, but Peter's own paintings of the feathered race ought to be most highly prized, though our Jemmie was so saucy as to laugh at them."
August 28 (1844). "I avail myself of Col. Todd's invitation to visit Tsarskoé Seló to-day with Aunt Alicia, Deborah, and the two dear boys, who are always so delighted at these little excursions.... My little Jemmie's heart was made sad by discovering swords which had been taken in the battle between Peter and Charles XII., for he knew, from their rich hilts set in pearls and precious stones, that they must have belonged to noble Swedes. 'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'I'd rather have one of these than all the other things in the armoury! How beautiful they are!'... I was somewhat annoyed that Col. Todd had deemed it necessary to have a dinner party for us.
"... The colonel proposed the Emperor's health in champagne, which not even the Russian general, who declined wine, could refuse, and even I put my glass to my lips, which so encouraged my little boys that they presented their glasses to be filled, and, forgetting at their little side-table the guests at ours, called out aloud, 'Santé à l'Empereur!' The captain clapped his hands with delight, and afterwards addressed them in French. All at the table laughed and called the boys 'Bons sujets.'"
They were at St. Petersburg again in September, preparing their Christmas gifts for America. Whistler, sending one to his cousin Amos Palmer, wrote in an outburst of patriotism that "the English were going to America to be licked by the Yankees": it was at the time of the disagreement over Oregon Territory. In another letter he gives the Fourth of July as his birthday.
Ash Wednesday (1845). "I avail myself of this Lenten season to have my boys every morning before breakfast recite a verse from the Psalms, and I, who wish to encourage them, am ready with my response. How very thankful I shall be when the weather moderates so that Jemmie's long imprisonment may end, and Willie have his dear brother with him in the skating grounds and ice-hills. Here comes my good boy Jemmie now, with his history in hand to read to me, as he does every afternoon, as we fear they may lose their own language in other tongues, and thus I gain a half-hour's enjoyment by hearing them read daily."
April 5 (1845). "Our boys have left the breakfast table before eight o'clock to trundle their new hoops on the Quai with their governess, and have brought home such bright red cheeks and buoyant spirits to enter the schoolroom with and to gladden my eyes. Jemmie began his course of drawing lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts just on the opposite side of the Neva, exactly fronting my bedroom window. He is entered at the second room. There are two higher, and he fears he shall not reach them, because the officer who is still to continue his private lesson at home is a pupil himself in the highest, and Jemmie looks up to him with all the reverence an artist merits. He seems greatly to enjoy going to his class, and yesterday had to go by the bridge on account of the ice, and felt very important when he told me he had to give the Isvóshtclók fifteen copecks silver instead of ten."
In the archives of the Imperial Academy of Science there is a "List of Scholars of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts," and in this and the "Class Journal of the Inspector" for 1845 James Whistler is entered as "belonging to the drawing class, heads from Nature." In 1846 he was on March 2 examined and passed as first in his class, the number being twenty-eight. From 1845 to 1849 Professors Vistelious and Voivov were the masters of the life class.
On May 14 (1845) there was a review of troops in St. Petersburg, and the Whistlers saw it from a window in the Prince of Oldenburg's palace.
"Jemmie's eagerness to attain all his desires for information and his fearlessness often makes him offend, and it makes him appear less amiable than he really is. The officers, however, seemed to find amusement in his remarks in French or English as they accosted him. They were soon informed of his military ardour, and that he hoped to serve his country. England? No, indeed! Russia, then? No, no; America, of course!"
May 2 (1846). "The boys are in the schoolroom now, reading the Roman history in French to M. Lamartine, promising themselves the pleasure of reviewing the pictures at the Academy of Fine Arts at noon, which they have enjoyed almost every day this week. It is the Triennial Exhibition, and we like them to become familiar with the subjects of the modern artists, and to James especially it is the greatest treat we could offer. I went last Wednesday with Whistler and was highly gratified. I should like to take some of the Russian scenes so faithfully portrayed to show in my native land. My James had described a boy's portrait said to be his likeness, and although the eyes were black and the curls darker, we found it so like him that his father said he would be glad to buy it, but its frame would only correspond with the furniture of a palace. The boy is taken in a white shirt with crimped frill, open at the throat; it is half-length, and no other garment could show off the glow of the brunette complexion so finely."
May 30 (1846). "Yesterday the Empress was welcomed back to St. Petersburg. Last night the illumination which my boys had been eagerly expecting took place. When at 10.30 they came in, Jamie expressed such an eager desire that I would allow him to be my escort just to take a peep at the Nevski that I could not deny him. The effect of the light from Vasili Ostrow was very beautiful, and as we drove along the Quai, the flowers and decorations of large mansions were, I thought, even more tasteful. We had to fall into a line of carriages in the Isaac Square to enter that Broadway, and just then a shout from the populace announced to us that the Empress was passing. I was terrified lest the poles of their carriage should run into our backs, or that some horses might take fright or bite us, we were so close, but Jamie laughed heartily and aloud at my timidity. He behaved like a man. With one arm he guarded me, and with the other kept the animals at a proper distance; and, I must confess, brilliant as the spectacle was, my great pleasure was derived from the conduct of my dear and manly boy."
