The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-21

10 APf OF MAKING GLnCmlhCH AAAuS~
,rated-He Could BE - Courtier,
Too-A serious View of His own
Art.
From the New York Sun.
lanes Abbott Mcneil Whistler, the
,ri,7ce of eccentrics-"e eccentric, they
can find no better adjective for me- as
he disdainfully said-who died on FRI
dav in London, just escaped being an
American army officer. 1t seems
\ strange to try to fancy the exquisite
4 lanes the splendidly original painter,
living the life of soldier. but when he
\ beean his education at West Point it
was his desire, expectation and am
hilton to have a soldiers career. Odd
as it may be to think of the slender
Whistler hands-which for so many
years dangled the long wand that be-
came as we'll known in London as the
white lock'-as broadened out into the
hrawny palms of the athlete, still
Whistler's early wish at West Point
was to excel among the cadets in ath-
Ietics. But it was not to be.
His life was strenuous enough, one
long battle TO make a record score of
enemies, and a battle also to justify in
Il the ewes of the blind his original art
indeed, a battle part of the time for
mere existence, for there were times
when starvation threatened hinl-but
it was life also out of which he ex-
tracted a generous share of what was
N him good fun, and in which he en-
loved his need of good living.
Whistler, who had suffered for lack
Of the necessaries of life, came to be
able to dine his friends with vases Of
goldfish on the table and to throw per-
fume into the vases at the close of the
feast, killing the fishes and causing
them to squirt the perfumed water to-
ward the guests in their expiring gasps.
To many people who little realize
Whistlers high place as an artist, he
is held in appreciative remembrance
for his extraordinary faculty for say
ing rasping things, the faculty which
he exploits in his diverting book, THE
Gentle Art of Making Enemies"
Il learn that l have, lurking in Lon
don, still a friend he wrote only last
year. less than a twelvemonth ago,
though for the life of me 1 cannot re-
member his name"
Not all of his sharp sayings We're
quite so Weter as that however, and
some of them were delicious. Tom
Taylor, the art critic of the London
Times had made strenuous objection
to q quotation by Whistler form Tay-
lor's article on Velasquez, Taylor de-
claring that the quotation standing
alone as Whistler used 1t gave just
the contrary impression to that which
II conveyed when read with the con-
text.
why squabble?" wrote Whistler in
reply. You did print what 1 quote, you
know, Tom; and it is surely uninpor-
ttnt what more you have written
about the master. That you should
have written anything at all Is your
crime. Leave vengeance to the Lord,
who will forgive my garbling Tom
Gaylor's writing"
The art critic ever touched the spring
OF his deepest bitterness. OF Ruskin's
high sounding, empty things" he
wrote that they would give Titan the
same shock of surprise that was Ba-
laams when the first great critic
B proffered his opinion
Frederick Wedmore, critic. COM
planned as Taylor had -. done that
Whistler had treated him unfairly in
a quotation from his writings. Whis-
ter had substituted, he said, under
stand" for "understate."
MY carelesIaoSz is culpable,p wrote
Whistler, "the nlIsprint is without ex-
cuse. l have all along known that
with Mr.. Wedmore, as with his breth-
rem, ii is always a matter of under
stating and not at all of understand
ing
When Taylor died, 81 have hardly a
warm personal enemy left sorrowed
Whistler.
He was not to escape the writings
Of the critics merely by failing to read
them, had that been his wish, and he
referred scathingly to ''the untirfng
people who daily supply me with the
thinkings of my critics"
He was often delightfully."- epigram-
matte in speech. When he failed of re-
election to the presidency of the Royal
Society of British Artists he remark
ed:
mo longer can it be said that the
right man is in the wrong place"
When the trouble in this society was
brewing and his cause was sinking,
one of his supporters resigned.
All" said Whistler, 1.-The early rat"
After he and his friends had with
drawn from the society, following
upon his defeat, Whistler was in the
galleries one day when there was an
exhibition. One of the other visitors
stood before canvas of Leighton's
and exclaimed
It's a gem, a perfect gem"
Yes" quoth Whistler, like a dia-
mond in the sty."
If mellow or drolT humor could
be attributed to Whistler at all, it
might perhaps be found in the inscrip-
ton he placed over the door of his
White House when he was quitting it
as a dwelling: UNLESS the Lord build
the house their labor is vain that build
one"
Rossetti showed him a sketch. Whist
Ter praised it and babe Rossetti go on
with it. Later Rossetti went into &C.
Stasies over his painting himself and
brought it to Whistler to show him
now beautiful it had become.
Whistler said that apparently moth
ing had been done upon it further, and
Rossitti acknowledged that that was
so, but he had written a sonnet upon
H. which he proceeded to read to
Whistler, according to one of the
stories which Sheridan Ford tells in
ms personally conducted edition of
The Gentle Art" When the reading
ceased:
Rossetti," said Whistler, take The
picture out and put the sonnet in the
frame"
Yet this strange genius could be a
Sourtier. He had, as president of the
Royal Society, obtained for 1t a royal
charter, which the society had never
before had. When the Prince of Wales,
now King Edward, paid his first visit
70 the societX's galleries after this,
Whistler as president was there to re-
Selve him, and the Prince said that
ne mad never before heard of that 80