The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-29
"BuTTERFLY- WHISTLER.
Facts i'm the Late Lady Edeu-Arust
Whistler Sensation.

Philadelphia Record.
The Eden Whistler case bids fair to have
it's nine days run as an art sensation. In
brief the case stands thus Lady Eden sat
to James Mcneil Whistler for portrait
Whistler at first mentioned ESQ (s2.750 as
his fee; possibly he was joking; at any rate,
he agreed to leave , the whole matter OF re-
liam sent Whistler check for f100. Whist
Ter exhibited the. portrait in the Champ
de Mars, but refused to turn ii over to
Sir William on the ground that he had
been insufficiently paid.
Whistler. as ali the world knows. is moth
ing IL not eccentric. As Swinburne lis
among the poets SO Is Whistler among the
artists At a London. club one evening
Swinburne, being unable to find his hat
among the dozens OH the rack, tossed all
the tiles the hall floor and executed a
wild dance among them, Whistler, angered
from Sir William, took his brush and
painted out the head of the portrait in
Sir William thereupon sued Whistler for
the recovery of. the portrait. BY the de-
the finished portrait to its owner must re-
store the f10O, with interest at per cent.
must pay f2O damages and must pay the
cost OF the proceedings.
Lady Eden is a woman of exceptional
beauty and famous as such not only in
England but also s on the continent Prior
lovely Sibyl Grey" being the daughter of
Sir William Grey. whose grandfather was
the famous earl of that name.
She has always been favorite subject
for great artists, and perhaps the most
successful and best known portrait OF her
is the one exhibited a few years ago at the
Royal Academy in London by Herkomer,
and which now hangs on the walls OF her
country seat, Windlestone Hall.
Butterfly Whistler the artist is
dubbed owing to the fact that he signs his
works with queer kind of butterfly in
stead of his name has of late years
been an inhAbitant of the queen of cities.
He resides in small blue-green house in
the Rue du Bac. protected from the noisy
wa ct WENT of that busy thoroughfare by
q succession of gardens.
Before settling in Paris, however, WhtS-
tier had long resided in London, where he
exercised preponderating influence upon
the independent jeune ecole, and notably
that of Glasgow, who reverence him as a
master-the master of half-tones-and revel
in the weird grays, the girls d'ensemble
which characterize so many of his works
and promises TO become historic, like the
red of Rembrandt and the pink of Fra
gonard
How he created a reaction against the
original, is nothing If not aggressive-and
excited the wrath of Ruskin. against whom
he brought action. and how he followed
this up with 'The Gentle Art of Making
Enemies book which had such vogue in
both hemispheres-is still fresh in the minds
OF al.
One of his finest contributions to the art
of the age a masterpiece In the fullest
sense of the term, is the portrait of his
mother, which, upon fixing his abode in
Paris, he sold for nominal sum 10 the
state, and which now hangs in the coliec-
ton of the works of living painters at the
Musee du Luxembourg.
Whistlers quarrel with Du Maurier over
one of the characters in "Trilby" is still
fresh in the public mind.