"Has he, like Mr. Ruskin, devoted thirty years of a poet's life to the Galleries of Europe?
"Has he, like Diderot, inquired curiously into the meaning and message of this thing and that? And appreciating Greuze, been able to appreciate Chardin?(!!)"
Mr. Wedmore,
"Nineteenth Century."
"Mr. Ruskin's whole body of doctrine, from the very young days, in which he took the duty of teacher, on to his old age, was contradicted by Mr. Whistler's pictures."—Merrie England.
"In painting, his success is infrequent, and it is limited.
"In painting, Mr. Whistler is an impressionist. His best painting betrays something of that almost modern sensitiveness to pleasurable juxtapositions of delicate colour which we admire in Orchardson, in Linton (sic!), and in Albert Moore; it betrays, sometimes, as in a portrait of Miss Alexander, a deftness of brushwork in the wave of a feather, in the curve of a hat ... and of high art qualities it betrays not much besides.
"It is true that the originality of his painted work is somewhat apt to be dependent on the innocent error that confuses the beginning with the end, accepts the intention for the execution, and exalts an adroit sketch into the rank of a permanent picture."
F. Wedmore, "Four Masters of Etching."
"I think Mr. Whistler had great powers at first, which he has not since justified."
Mr. Jones, R.A.
Evidence in Court, Nov. 16, 1878.