WAPPING WHARF (ETCHING).
The relatives present included the Misses Philip and F. L. Philip, Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Lawson, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whibley and Edwin W. Godwin. Although no announcement of the funeral was made in London papers many distinguished friends and acquaintances crowded the church. Beautiful wreaths were sent by Vanderbilt, Lawrence, Alma Tadema and various federations and societies. Those present were: George W. Vanderbilt, Mr. Joseph Pennell, Rev. H. C. Leserve of Boston, Johnson Sturges, R. F. Knoedler and I. M. B. MacNary of New York City; M. Dumont of the International Society of Painters; Marcus Bourne Huish, editor of the "Art Journal;" Thomas Armstrong; and Alfred East (A. R. A.).
When a reporter called at the house July 18th he was informed that the artist had left stringent instructions that no information whatever regarding his illness or death should be given either to his friends or the newspapers. He remained true to his eccentricities, or rather to his peculiar personality. Even in his exit from this life to the thrones of glory beyond, he endeavoured to make it as odd and picturesque as possible. He played his part to the last. And it was one of the noblest parts ever played by man.
CHAPTER III
THE BUTTERFLY
The famous butterfly monogram, originally a decorative combination of the letters "J. M. W.," which evolved into a decorative design of a butterfly, enclosed in a circle, as it appeared in his "Sarasate" and "Carlyle," and, frequently, a mere stencil-like silhouette as seen in his correspondence, began to appear in Whistler's pictures in the late sixties. The "Symphony in Gray and Green—The Ocean" (painted in 1866) was probably the first important canvas in which it was introduced. In his earlier pictures he had made use of an ordinary written signature as most painters use. It is strange that it took an artist of Whistler's sensitiveness so long to realize the incongruities of these crude calligraphic displays. They disfigure many a good picture and smack of the materialism of this age. Every picture should have a signature, if for no other reason than to prove the authenticity at some future time. But surely it can be treated with more discretion than it is to-day. The Old Masters frequently handled it with ingenuity and some degree of modesty. It was the Japanese artist who gave it a decorative significance. The red cartouches of Hiroshige are known to every print collector. He considered it a part of the picture, a colour note or vehicle of balance in an empty space, as important a detail of composition as any other.
Whistler treated his monogram in the same conscientious and picturesque fashion. He used it with preference in his symphonies, nocturnes and large portraits, but, at times, also in white, as on a rail post in the lower right corner of his "Bognor." He handled it with more than ordinary reverence, as everything that pertained to the exploiting of his own personality. He often introduced it at the first painting to judge the effect, and, of course, he wiped or scraped it out over and over again until he procured the desired effect. He continually made slight changes in the design, he toyed with it as with some curio, elaborated it in many ways, and, eventually, even bestowed a sting upon the insect, as it appears in his "Gentle Art of Making Enemies."