The second International Exhibition, or "Art Congress," was held at Knightsbridge from May to July 1899. The President came over when the hanging was finished. It was arranged this year that a special show of his etchings should be made, and a small room was decorated and called the White Room. As Whistler was in Paris, he asked J. and Mrs. Whibley to go to the studio and select the prints. J. chose a number that had not been seen before, principally from the Naval Review Series. Whistler, for some reason, resented the selection when he saw the prints on the walls. The Committee were in consternation and sent for J. Whistler said to him:
"Now look what you have done!"
"But what have I done? Have I done you any harm?"
And that was the end of it. His objection may have been because he feared, as we remember his saying of these prints another time, that they were "beyond the understanding of the abomination outside." But his fury lasted only for the moment, and he and Lavery and J. passed a good part of the night at work in the gallery on the catalogue.
Whistler received on the opening day, and in the evening the first of the Round Table Council dinners was held at the Café Royal, Sir James Guthrie presiding. In an admirable speech he expressed not only the delight of the Council at being able to enlist the sympathy and aid of Whistler, but their love and appreciation for the man and his work. The sympathy then existing between the President and most of the Council was genuine, and he appreciated it as much as they did. After dinner a few of the Council went with him to Sir John Lavery's, where he was staying, and there he read The Baronet and the Butterfly, which had just appeared in Paris. This, because of absence or ill-health, was the only Council dinner he went to, though for a time there was one every year, and at several Rodin presided.
To the second exhibition the President sent several small canvases recently finished. Again the infallible critics discussed them as promising works of the past, and were made to eat their words, and again in the catalogue Whistler quoted the Times, and to its opinion of to-day of "... the vanished hand which drew the Symphony in White and Miss Alexander" compared its opinion "of the moment" of those two pictures, when the Miss Alexander suggested a sketch left "before the colours were dry in a room where the chimney-sweeps were at work," and was "uncompromisingly vulgar." "Other Times, other lines!" was Whistler's comment. Three illustrated catalogues were published by Messrs. W. H. Ward and Company. Whistler's Chelsea Rags and Trouville were both included in the ordinary editions, and the Little Lady Sophie of Soho and Lillie in our Alley were added to the édition de luxe. The catalogues until 1910, when even Whistler's format was discarded, are the most interesting issued by any society. The second exhibition was less of a success financially than the first, and the Society of Artists came near being involved in the crash which overtook the financing company. To avoid complications Whistler insisted that the Society should have an Honorary Solicitor and Treasurer, and Mr. William Webb was appointed.
In the first and second exhibitions the art of the world was represented as it never had been before in England,[12] as it never has been since. In both, attempts to attract the public with music and receptions and entertainments were made, but Whistler objected to music, saying that the two arts should be kept separate, that people who came to hear the music could not see the pictures, and people who came to see the pictures would not want to hear the music. There were misunderstandings with the proprietor and the promoters, the former wishing to see some of his friends represented, and the latter to see some of their money back, and the outlook was gloomy. Whistler wrote a memorable letter in which he said that he, as commander, proposed to repel pirates and sink their craft, and they never openly got aboard, though a few stowaways did creep in.
No show was held in 1900, the Paris Universal Exhibition taking up the members' energy, and not until the autumn of 1901 was the third exhibition opened at the Galleries of the Royal Institute in Piccadilly. There had been official and other changes. Professor Sauter had been made Honorary Secretary, pro tem., and the Society, which up till now had consisted of the Council only, admitted Associates, and with their election the international character began to wane, for, out of thirty-two Associates elected, twenty-eight were resident in Great Britain. This exhibition was the first to be financially successful. The President sent seven small paintings and pastels. Phryne the Superb was reproduced in the catalogue, as well as Gold and Orange—The Neighbours, and Green and Silver—The Great Sea.
Professor Sauter devoted himself to furthering the International idea of the President, and under his Secretaryship the Society held exhibitions of its English members' work in Budapest, Munich, and afterwards in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis. On June 11, 1903, Professor Sauter was relieved temporarily of the Secretaryship and J. took his place. Within a few weeks it was his sad duty to call a meeting to announce to the Society the loss they had sustained by the death of their President.
The Council determined to follow the traditions of Whistler and to honour his memory. Not only were the American exhibitions held, but the Society organised a show of British art in Dusseldorf, and made arrangements for a Memorial Exhibition of the President's works in London. In the autumn of 1903 M. Rodin accepted the Presidency, and the fourth exhibition, the first held in the New Gallery, was opened in January 1904, in which the late President was represented by the Symphony in White, No. III., lent by Mr. Edmund Davis; Rose and Gold—The Tulip, lent by Miss Birnie Philip; Valparaiso, lent by Mr. Graham Robertson; Symphony in Grey—Battersea, lent by Mrs. Armitage; and Study for a Fan, lent by Mr. C. H. Shannon.