The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-04-09
VISITING AN COMPRESSION
IST".
uou Whistler. the "AposSl lie OF
the Artenuated," WORKS az
His Easel.
rc,osor,s Letter In. Pioneer Press

ICro.1ts Letter in. Pioneer Press
Tn London last summer Tired t
600 some Of the celebrities. ant
among these Jimmy" Whistler. q
his cropies call him, holds a plsce o
some altitude. He is the father /"
that agu modern school of ar
whose members call themsel 0e'
"impressionists y. They paint theil
feelings. 40 to speak, instead Of the
vision Of the retina. What on
earth does this representa-" asked one
of these inspirrd beings at a last acad'
envy exhibition, facing a great splash
of green with q strip of brown beyond
and in the distance a windmill with
| delirnm tremeDs. THAT" he an-
swered with supreme complaceDcy.
"represents how / felt about that patch
! of turni2s." So Whistler would an
swer you. He painted a canvas black
threw in the.midd'e of it an immense
red horizontal streak, then sDattered
over it a little red. green and yellow
stars, called it The Fireworks in
Vauxhall Gardens, and hung it in
Grosvenor gallery. Ruskin de-
nounced it as the work of a charlatan
and intimated that no one hut a
swindler would put such a botch on
exhibition and offer it for sale. The
trial was long, angry, and acrimoni-
Gus, and the verdict was given tn
W~hlstler-one farthing damages. He
claimed it as a victory, because Rus.
kin had to pay the costs.
Long before Wilde had thought of
japanese decoration. Whistler and
Moscheles had equipped their studios
with the art trophies of that Oriental
people. Indeed, Whjstler's pictures
are felt to have in their balance of
color, ETC.. q trace of japanese infu-
ence, After he had made a good deal
of money and could demand q good
price for his work, the artist built for
himself a model house on Chelsea
embankment, and called it the
"White House." It was built ac-
cording to his own fantastic taste. but
was q violation of all conventional
methods and plans. The whole top
place, and here, when not working
at portraits, he painted those lean and
upright figures of his on the narrow
ana upright
Whistler is the laureate of the ca
daverous, the apostle of the attenu-
ated-a wonderful draughtsman, a
mixture of what lovers of art
are inclined to chaff, and what they
are sure to reverence. In the "White
House" Whistler did some good
work. He uses a palette, and
stands most Of the time ten or fifteen
feet from his canvas. His paints are
arranged, in sweet confusion that ia
probably order to him. on a table
between him and his model-gener-
ally a lady-like. quiet. sandy-hairad
blonde. He nervously seizes a long
brush, looks at the model. rushes to
the table and gets the right paint.
springs forward and gives a sharp
dab at the canvas, and darts back
again. "Turn your head q trile!
Down chin. There. Don't stir" and
ne makes another dart at the canvas.
1t is a most earnest and exacting
business with him-an intense incu-
He g%esticulates. He cries
He acts as if he were driving q
'our-in-hand,' trying to break the
,ank at Monte Carlo. His easel il a
of target; he t axes a long aim and
,ulls the trigger ali at once. 1t is
iihcult to get him away from his
work.