Conviction
TO THE EDITOR:
Sir—A friend in America has sent me the letter from Mr. Whistler which refers to my article in Scribner on Mr. Haden's etchings. The letter begins as follows:
In Scribner's Magazine for this month there appears an article on Mr. Seymour Haden, New York Tribune, Oct. 11, 1880. the eminent surgeon etcher by a Mr. Hamerton, and in this article I have stumbled upon a curious statement concerning—strangely enough—my own affairs, offered pleasantly in the disguise of an anecdote habitually 'narrated' by the Doctor himself, and printed effectively in inverted commas, as here shown.
Here Mr. Whistler accuses me of disguising something which I chose to tell, as if it came from Mr. Haden, by printing it in inverted commas. The statement is "offered pleasantly in the disguise of an anecdote," and "printed effectively in inverted commas." I used inverted commas because it is the custom to do so when making a quotation. I quoted Mr. Haden's own words from one of his lectures on etching, and they will be found printed, as I quoted them, in Cassell's Magazine of Art. I beg to be permitted to observe that a writer who quotes a passage, as I did, in perfect good faith, ought not to be accused of offering matter in disguise. There was no disguise about it. Mr. Haden's words may be compared with my quotation. Again, to prevent any possible inaccuracy, a proof of the article in Scribner was sent to Mr. Haden before it was published.[22] [22]REFLECTION:
Queen's evidence. It is scarcely necessary that I should allude to Mr. Whistler's studied discourtesy in calling me "a Mr. Hamerton." It does me no harm, REFLECTION:
Q. E. D.
but it is a breach of ordinary good manners in speaking of a well-known writer!
Yours obediently,
P. G. HAMERTON.
Autun, Sept. 29, 1880.
AND
HIS CRITICS
A CATALOGUE
"Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them."
"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"
Etchings and Dry-points
"His pictures form a dangerous precedent."
VENICE.
"Another crop of Mr. Whistler's little jokes."
Truth.
1.—MURANO—GLASS FURNACE.
"Criticism is powerless here."—Knowledge.
2.—DOORWAY AND VINE.
"He must not attempt to palm off his deficiencies
upon us as manifestations of power."
Daily Telegraph.
"Their charm depends not at all upon the technical qualities so striking in his earlier work."
St. James's Gazette.
4.—SAN BIAGIO.
"So far removed from any accepted canons of art as to be beyond the understanding of an ordinary mortal."—Observer.
5.—BEAD STRINGERS.
REFLECTION:
"Et voilà comme on écrit l'histoire."
"'Impressionistes,' and of these the various schools are represented by Mr. Whistler, Mr. Spencer Stanhope, Mr. Walter Crane, and Mr. Strudwick."
6.—FISH SHOP.
"Those who feel painfully the absence in these works of any feeling for the past glories of Venice."
'Arry in the Spectator.
"Whistler is eminently vulgar."—Glasgow Herald.
7.—TURKEYS.
"They say very little to the mind."—F. Wedmore.
"It is the artist's pleasure to have them there, and we can't help it."—Edinburgh Courant.
"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 associations 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.
[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.
"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.
"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."—Saturday 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."
"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 space 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.
[24]Mr. Wedmore is the lucky discoverer of the following:—
"Vigour and exquisiteness are denied—are they not?—even to a Velasquez"!
"They have a merit of their own, and I do not wish to understand it."[24]—F. Wedmore.
19.—UPRIGHT VENICE.
"Little to recommend them save the eccentricity of their titles."
20.—LITTLE VENICE.
"The Little Venice is one of the slightest of the series."—St. James's Gazette.
"In the Little Venice and the Little Lagoon Mr. Whistler has attempted to convey impressions by lines far too few for his purposes."—Daily News.
"Our river is naturally full of effects in black and white and bistre. Venetian skies and marbles have colour you cannot suggest with a point and some printer's ink."—Daily News.
"It is not the Venice of a maiden's fancies."—'Arry.
21.—LITTLE COURT.
"Merely technical triumphs."—Standard.
22.—REGENT'S QUADRANT.
"There may be a few who find genius in insanity."
23.—LOBSTER POTS.
[25]The same Critic holds:
"The Thames is beautiful from Maidenhead to Kew, but not from Battersea to Sheerness."
"So little in them."[25]—P. G. Hamerton.
24.—RIVA No. 2.
"In all his former Etchings he was careful to give a strong foundation of firm drawing. In these plates, however, he has cast aside this painstaking method."
St. James's Gazette.
25.—ISLANDS.
[26]Elsewhere Mr. Wedmore is inspired to say—
"The true collector must gradually and painfully acquire the eye to judge of the impression."
REFLECTION:
This is possibly the process through which the preacher is passing.
"An artist who has never mastered the subtleties of accurate form."[26]—F. Wedmore.
"Well, little new came of it, in etching; nothing new that was beautiful."—F. Wedmore.
27.—NOCTURNE SHIPPING.
"Amazing!"
"This Archimago of the iconographic aoraton, or graphiology of the Hidden."—Daily Telegraph.
"Popularity is the only insult that has not yet been offered to Mr. Whistler."—Oscar Wilde.
28.—TWO DOORWAYS.
"It is trying to any sketch without tone to be hung upon a wall as these have been."—P. G. Hamerton.
29.—OLD WOMEN.
"He is never literary."—P. G. Hamerton.
30.—RIVA.
REFLECTION:
Like Eno's Fruit Salt or the "Anti-mal-de-Mer."
"He took from London to Venice his happy fashion of suggesting lapping water."—F. Wedmore.
"Even such a well-worn subject as the Riva degli Schiavoni is made original (?) by being taken from a high point of view, and looked at lengthwise, instead of from the canal."
"In Mr. Whistler's productions one might safely say that there is no culture."—Athenæum.
32.—THE BALCONY.
"His colour is subversive."—Russian Press.
33.—ALDERNEY STREET.
"The best art may be produced with trouble."
[27]"I am not a Mede nor a Persian."—F. Wedmore.
F. Wedmore.[27]
34.—THE SMITHY.
"They produce a disappointing impression."
[28]Mr. Hamerton does also say:
"Indifference to beauty is however compatible with splendid success in etching, as the career of Rembrandt proved."—Etching and Etchers.
"His Etchings seem weak when framed."[28]
P. G. Hamerton.
35.—STABLES.
"An unpleasing thing, and framed in Mr. Whistler's odd fashion."—City Press.
36.—THE MAST.
REFLECTION:
At the service of critics of unequal sizes.
"The Mast and the Little Mast are dependent for much of their interest, on the drawing of festoons of cord hanging from unequal heights."
P. G. Hamerton.
"The artist's present principles seem to deny him any effective chiaroscuro."—P. G. Hamerton.
REFLECTION:
"Sometimes generally always."
"Mr. Whistler's figure drawings, generally defective and always incomplete."
38.—FISHING BOAT.
"Subjects unimportant in themselves."
P. G. Hamerton.
39.—PONTE PIOVAN.
"Want of variety in the handling."
St. James's Gazette.
40.—GARDEN.
"An art which is happier in the gloom of a doorway than in the glow of the sunshine, and turns with a pleasant blindness from whatsoever in Nature or Man is of perfect beauty or noble thought."—'Arry.
41.—THE RIALTO.
"Mr. Whistler has etched too much for his reputation."—F. Wedmore.
REFLECTION:
This critic, true, is a Slade Professor.
"Scampering caprice."—S. Colvin.
"Mr. Whistler's drawing, which is sometimes that of a very slovenly master."
"After all, there are certain accepted canons about what constitutes good drawing, good colour, and good painting; and when an artist deliberately sets himself to ignore or violate all of these, it is desirable that his work should not be classed with that of ordinary artists."—'Arry.
43.—NOCTURNE SALUTE.
[29]?
"The utter absence, as far as my eye[29] may be trusted, of gradation."—F. Wedmore.
"There are many things in a painter's art which even a photographer cannot understand."
Laudatory notice in Provincial Press.
44.—FURNACE NOCTURNE.
"There is no moral element in his chiaroscuro."
Richmond Eagle.
45.—PIAZETTA.
"Whistler does not take much pains with his work."
New York Paper.
"A sort of transatlantic impudence in his cleverness."
"His pictures do not claim to be accurate."
"Form and line are of little account to him."
47.—QUIET CANAL.
"Herr Whistler stellt ganz wunderbare Productionen aus, die auf Gesetze der Form und der Farbe gegründet scheinen, die dem Uneingeweihten unverständlich sind."—Wiener Presse.
"This new manner of Mr. Whistler's is no improvement upon that which helped him to win his fame in this field of art."
48.—PALACES.
"The absence, seemingly, of any power of drawing the forms of water."[30]—F. Wedmore.
[30]See No. 30, The Riva.
"He has never, so far as we know, attempted to transfer to copper any of the more ambitious works of the architect."—Pall Mall Gazette.
"He has been content to show us what his eyes can see, and not what his hand can do."
St. James's Gazette.
49.—SALUTE DAWN.
"Too sensational."—Athenæum.
"Pushing a single artistic principle to the verge of affectation."—Sidney Colvin.
"In the character of humanity he has not time to be interested."—Standard.
"General absence of tone."—P. G. Hamerton.
51.—LAGOON: NOON.
"Years ago James Whistler was a person of high promise."—F. Wedmore.
[31]REFLECTION:
The quid of sweet and bitter fancy.
"What the art of Mr. Whistler yields is a tertium quid."[31]—Sidney Colvin.
"All of which gems, I am sincerely thankful to say, I cannot appreciate."
[32]REFLECTION:
The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the City.
"As we have hinted, the series does not represent any Venice that we much care to remember; for who wants to remember the degradation of what has been noble, the foulness of what has been fair?"
'Arry[32] in the "Times."
"Disastrous failures."—F. Wedmore.
"Failures that are complete and failures that are partial."—F. Wedmore.
"A publicity rarely bestowed upon failures at all."
F. Wedmore, Nineteenth Century.
"Voilà ce que l'on dit de moi
Dans la Gazette de Hollande."
"Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness."
"We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night."
"We roar all like bears."
Taking the Bait
By the simple process of applying snippets of published sentences to works of art to which the original comments The Academy, Feb. 24, 1883. were never meant to have reference, and sometimes, too, by lively misquotation—as when a writer who "did not wish to understate" Mr. Whistler's merit is made to say he "did not wish to understand" it, Mr. Whistler has counted on good-humouredly confounding criticism. He has entertained but not persuaded; and if his literary efforts with the scissors and the paste-pot might be taken with any seriousness we should have to rebuke him for his feat. But we are far from doing so. He desired, it seems, to say that he and Velasquez were both above criticism. An artist in literature would have said it in fewer words; but indulgence may fairly be granted to the less assured methods of an amateur in authorship.
F. WEDMORE.
An Apology
Atlas—There are those, they tell me, who have the approval of the people—and live! For them the succès d'estime; for me, O Atlas, the succès d'exécration—the only tribute possible from the Mob to the Master! The World, Feb. 28, 1883. This I have now nobly achieved. Glissons! In the hour of my triumph let me not neglect my ambulance.
Mr. Frederick Wedmore—a critic—one of the wounded—complains that by dexterously substituting "understand" for "understate," I have dealt unfairly by him, and wrongly rendered his writing. Let me hasten to acknowledge the error, and apologise. My carelessness is culpable, and the misprint without excuse; for naturally I have all along known, and the typographer should have been duly warned, that with Mr. Wedmore, as with his brethren, it is always a matter of understating, and not at all one of understanding.
Quant aux autres—well, with the exception of "'Arry," who really is dead, they will recover. Scalped and disfigured, they are not mortally hurt; and—would you believe it?—possessed with an infinite capacity for continuing, they have already returned, nothing doubting, to their limited literature, of which I have exhausted the stock.—Yours, en passant,
Chelsea.
"Jeux Innocents" in Tite Street
Mr. Whistler's final breakfast of the year was given on Sunday last. The hospitable master has fresh wonders The World, Dec. 26, 1883. in store for his friends in the new year; for, not content with treating his next-door critic after the manner that Portuguese sailors treat the Apostle Judas at Easter-tide, he is said to have perfected a new instrument of torture. This invention is of the nature of a camera obscura, whereby, by a crafty "arrangement" of reflectors, he promises to display in his own studio, to his friends, "'Arry at the White House," under all the appropriate circumstances that might be expected of a "Celebrity at Home."
ATLAS.
A Line from the Lands End
Delightful! Atlas—I have read here, to the idle miners—culture in their manners curiously, at this season, blended with intoxication—your brilliant and graphic description of 'Arry The World, Jan. 2, 1884. at the other end of my arrangement in telescopic lenses.
The sensitive sons of the Cornish caves, by instinct refined, revel in the writhing of the resurrected 'Arry.
Our natures are evidently of the same dainty brutality. Cruelty to the critic after demise, is a revelation, and the story of 'Arry pursued with post-mortem, and, for Sunday demonstration, kept by galvanism from his grave, is to them most fascinating.
I have, my sympathetic Atlas, the success that might have been Edgar Poe's, could he have read to such an audience the horrible "Case of Mr. Waldemar."
My invention and machinery, by the way, these warm-hearted people believe to be something after the fashion of their own sluice-boxes—and I dare not undeceive them.
Atlas, je te la souhaite bonne et heureuse!
St. Ives, Cornwall,
Dec. 27.
The Easy Expert
Atlas—They have sent me the Spectator—a paper upon which our late 'Arry lingered to the last as art critic. In its columns I find a correspondent calling aloud for our kind intervention. Present me, brave Atlas, to the editor, that I may say to him:
The World, Jan. 30, 1884.
"Good sir,—'Your Reviewer' is doubtless my unburied 'Arry. Why, then, should 'his mistaking a photogravure reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing by Samuel Palmer for a finished etching by the same hand' seem, 'to say the least of it, astounding'?
"Not at all! By this sort of thing was he known among us, poor chap—and so was he our fresh gladness and continued surprise."
"Did I not make historical his enchanting encounter with Mr. Herkomer's water-colour drawing of Mr. Ruskin at the Grosvenor, which he described as the 'first oil portrait we have of the great master'? Amazing that, if you like!
"Do not all remember how we leaped for joy at the reading of it?"
"Even Atlas himself laughed aloud, and, handicapped as he is with the World, and weighted with wisdom, danced upon his plinth, a slow measure of reckless acquiescence, as I set down in the chronicles of all time that 'Arry, 'unable, by mere sense of smell, to distinguish between oil and water-colour, might at least have inquired; and that either the fireman or the guardian in the Gallery could have told him not to blunder in the Times.'"
"But no, he never would ask—he liked his potshots at things; it used to give a sort of sporting interest to his speculations upon pictures. And so he was ever obstinate—or any one at the Fine Art Society would have told him the difference between an etching and a photograph.—I am, good sir, yours, etc."
Atlas, à bientôt.
St. Ives, Cornwall,
Jan. 25, 1834.