ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND WHITE: LADY MEUX (NO. 1).
The most suitable colours for a combination with black are the neutral colours, like grey and brown, or delicate tints, like pink and olive, russet and citrine. At these conclusions every student of the harmony and contrasts of colour must naturally arrive. And Whistler conquered his knowledge by actual experiments. It was no whim. As long as he favoured black he could not change his colour schemes. His colouring had to be kept cool and the few tones of luminous colours that he introduced had to be broken and neutralized. The scientific facts underlying his colour moods should answer all futile questions of why he selected such deep and sombre colour combinations. We all realize that he is no colourist in the sense of Memling, Pinturicchio, Titian, Rubens, Fragonard, Delacroix, Makart or Roybet, he does not even show us as much variety as Constable or Israels or an Impressionist.
I say Impressionist, because an Impressionist's canvas can be deprived of colour (and how many are) as much as any black-in-black arrangement of a Tissot or Ribot. The high key does not save a picture from being colourless. Colour means the full use of the palette, green, blue, red, and yellow, on one canvas as distinct sensations and not modified into a general tint. The majority of Impressionists are tonalists not colourists. Franz Hals and Velasquez were fond of black and greys but rarely lacked the sense of conveying a delicate colour impression. Whistler, who, in his portraits is a great tonalist but never a colourist, displays the same faculty in his best work, but in some instances his subtle touch seems to have forsaken, him, and the result was a dull tonality as in his "Florence Leyland." A similar colour scheme but of great charm is represented in "La Belle Américaine" (the only picture that in subject matter bears any relation to America). The grey tight-fitting gown and the black boa around the neck in conjunction with the assertive and yet so nonchalant pose have a singular charm. As soon as the outlines of a figure are too much obliterated the charm of colour seems to vanish. Colour alone cannot hold it. It demands form to balance it. Whistler said that painting was every bit as much a science as mathematics. I fear at times he considered it too much a science, at least as far as his colour was concerned. He painted figures, indoors, so low in tone that he could have added a streak of real sunshine at its proper value to the picture. If his darkest canvases grow darker still with age, they will be almost indistinguishable. But his scientific attitude rarely played him false in composition.
Having painted only single figures, it has been doubted whether he had any extensive knowledge of figure composition. This seems to be a futile question. It is my contention that he limited himself to one figure representation, because he knew all about "Old Master" composition.
He wanted one big total effect and did not see how it could have been reached, or had been ever reached by anybody except by one single figure. He had nothing in common with the representation of history, legend or myth and much less of genre, realism of the gutter, or descriptive painting. He wanted to represent modern men and women in the costume of to-day. So he chose the single standing or seated figure. Why did he never paint a group! Perhaps he had found it impossible to obtain in a more elaborate composition the result that he cherished most. A painter must paint from the model, to approach any degree of verity. A Monticelli may "fake" or paint from imagination, but his colour masses are a different proposition than life-size figures. The fact must be before one's eyes to render them accurately. One figure in modern costume offers such facts in a natural manner. An elaborate group can be secured only with difficulty, and will never look quite natural. Whistler knew his strength, and did not waste superior energy for a less satisfactory result. This was scientific restraint.
And how he controlled the various forms of representation. He invariably chose the most favourable position. A standing figure offers the widest scope of characterization when shown in a full front view. Nearly all his men, Sarasate, Duret, and Irving are drawn in that position. But a seated figure is shown to the best advantage in a clear profile, every student of composition must arrive at the conclusion, and there was nothing else to do but to paint his "Mother" and "Carlyle" in that attitude. Women on the other hand are more picturesque in outline, also look well, standing, in profile with slightly turned face, viz., "Rose Corder," "Miss Alexander," "The Yellow Buskin," "The Fur Jacket," "Mrs. Huth," "Lady Meux No. 2." Also in the delineation of the human face he preferred the simple full-face view, with just a slight shift to the right or left to show the line of the nose. The three-quarter view is undoubtedly more picturesque, and when he painted small heads, among them his own, he frequently used it. In the larger portraits he wanted dignity, breadth, and simplicity and he sacrificed everything to that effect.
Wilstach Gallery, Philadelphia
ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK: LADY ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL (THE YELLOW BUSKIN).
The portraits of Miss Cecily Henrietta Alexander (painted in 1872), and Mr. Theodore Duret (painted in 1883), show perhaps in the clearest way that he always worked on the same problem. They are, one may say, the uniting link between the Japanese period and the "Carlyle" and "The Artist's Mother," his most finished and perfect work. They have more colour and grace than most of his pictures, and show the figures with some accessories. Both linger in one's mind as a vision of select refinement.