Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-04-28
The Eanentrie whistler.


The Whistler Exhibition, in Bond
street, is filing up in patronage now
that the town is filing and people are
returning from the Riviera, Algeria
and the south of Spain. | think J A.
Mcneil Whistler, painter, etcher, and
evolver of symphonies, "nocturnes"
and arrangement" from the gamut
OF his palette is popularizing not to
say humanitizing his style. His former
art-idea was far too subtle and esoteric
to be comprehended by any but as-
thetic experts; sages who are compe-
tent to distinguish between the cor
reggiosity of Correggio" and the Jo-
hannism Of Burne JONES'" analogistS
who can detect the points of affinity
between a Shopenhauer in metaphysic
and Wagner in music. Of late |
think Whistler is growing more ra
tional, not to say understandable, and
many people think that Ruskin's at
tack on the eccentric American
(though by the way he was born at st.
Petersburg in the "Fors Clavigera"
did him good in the long run. Whist
Ter is well to the fore at present and
people are asking about him. ! believe
he received his higher educat ion at
the Military Academy at West Point,
which is equivalent to saying he has
gone through course of training in
mathematics as severe as that to which
the pupils of the Ecole PolytechniQue
in Paris are subjected. To this
enforced proficiency in geometry
may be due these olev-
er effects in linear and
aerial perspective, which to the out
ward eye seem to have been produced
by few scratches in the remarkable
etchings that are stored in the Print
room of the British Museum and the
Library of the Queen at Windsor
Castle. The art training of Mr..
Whistler has been of a nature less
thorough than his scholastic curricu
lum. He was a pupil of Gleyne, and
of that famous French painter it is
enough to observe that the most re-
markable of his works we're purchased
by the government as an example of
the French school for the Museum of
the Luxembourg. That Mr.. Whistler
is master of the etching needle and
the dry point, is incOntestable, and
that he can paint admirably is mani>
fest by portrait of mother, shown
some years ago at the Royal Academy,
striking likeness of Carlyle exhibited
at the Grosvenor Gallery, and by the
famous Woman in White" which
the French art critics passed inordi-
nately. When l add that Whistler is
harmonious colorist and deft man
ipulator of atmospheric effect, | think
have said enough to show that he
can afford to ALLURE art heresy and
eccentric Turkey carpet pattern per
formances with his pencil, and be as
reasonable and clear as some Of his
compeers. Several years ago, when he
was full Of his "nocturnes" and "ar-
rangements," he turned out some
pictures so extravagant and wild,
that for the life of me could not
understood them without key They
reminded me Of the story of the French
impressionist who assembled his
friends and set them to guessing the
subject of his best work:
Its a sunset" said one.
A storm at sea" cried another.
"A plate of tomatoes" protested a
third.
"a political meeting" quoth a
fourth.
"VeSuvius in eruption" said an
other.
"A naval combat" cried sixth.
"a lobster salad struck by light.
ming" suggested a wag, with imper-
turbable gravity.
my dear friends" calmly said the
artist, you are utterly ard entirely
wrong; it simply represents a country
wedding"
| Stupelaction and general hilarity.
| Well, some of Whistler's earlier
works, when his eccentric mood was
| full upon him, would have surely pug.
zled his friends to hit the subjects
Mark Twain said that when he first
saw Turner'S "Slave Ship" he thought
! it lurid, glazing mass of color foun
dering about in a fierce eonAagratior
Of reds and yellows, and that it re
minded him Of tortoise shell tomcat
having fit in plate of tomatoes.
j l don't say Whistler reached this
point of extravaganza, but he certainly
did submit to the public performance
the like of which was never seen il
the heavens above, or on the eartl
beneath, or in the waters under tn,
earth. We have, therefore, abundan
reason to be grateful that Jimmy,
as his friends call him, is growing
reasonable and less obscure. His Bon,
street show arrangements in whit
and yellow" are likely to becom
one Of the lions Of the coming Londol
season.