"We can paint a cat or a fiddle, so that they look as if we could take them up; but we cannot imitate the Ocean or the Alps. We can imitate fruit, but not a tree; flowers, but not a pasture; cut-glass, but not the rainbow."—John Ruskin, Esq., Teacher of Art.
16.—NOCTURNE.
Grey and Gold—Chelsea Snow.
Lent by Alfred Chapman, Esq.
"Mr. Whistler sends two of his studies of moonlight, in which form is eschewed for harmonies of 'Grey and Gold' and 'Blue and Silver;' and which, for the crowd of exhibition visitors, resolve themselves into riddles or mystifications.... In a word, painting to Mr. Whistler is the exact correlative of music, as vague, as purely emotional, as released from all functions of representation.
"He is really building up art out of his own imperfections [sic!] instead of setting himself to supply them."—Times.
17.—NOCTURNE.
Blue and Silver—Battersea Reach.
Lent by W. G. Rawlinson, Esq.