New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-27
AND THE r. Il.
The Veped Question Of Their In
hQTUnOnu
harmony.

Mr. G. w Srnalley in the interesting letter
on Whistler TO THE London Times" which we
quoted the other day. offered some striking
"reminiscences Of the painters attitude toward
the Royal Academy. Since then there has been
considerable correspondence on the subject in
The Times and elsewhere. Mr. G. d Leslie
wrote stating that he had been friendly
terms with Whistler for nearly forty years, and
never heard him. at any time. testify animosity
against the Academy or its members Mr.
Theodore Watts-Dunton in reply says that for
about ten years he was very intimate with
Whistler so intimate that during part Of this
period we met almost every day" and adds that
they were jointly engaged in the weekly called
.'PiccadiIly" in which Whistler's first litho-
graphs appeared. During that time" he says,
there were not many days when he failed to
testify animosity' against the Academy and
its members"
Returning to the argument, Mr.. Leslie admits
that he saw Whistler during the later years OF
his life but seldom owing to his residence IN
the country, "and it is quite probable that he
may have abused the Academy soundly at
times: he lavished his wit and sarcasm IN con-
versation pretty freely on most institutions and
most men, but few Of his friends escaped at
one time or another his hostility. But
I am unaware that he ever made any pubIshed
attack on the Royal Academy" Nothing Wouio
give Mr. Leslie greater pleasure, he protests
than to see as many possible of Whistlers
beautiful pictures in the forthcoming Winter
Exhibition at Burlington House; but the Royal
Academy. need be at no concern TO decorate
the room with sackcloth and ashes" A further
contribution 70 this tempest in a teapot is made
by Mr.. W Heinernann and Mr. Joseph Pencil
whose wife is TO write the official biography
of the artist-in the following letter, which
strikes injudicious, to say the least:
May we. as friends Of the late Mr.. Whistler:
enter a word Of protest against the proposAi OF
2 exhibition OF his works under the auspices
Of the Royal Academy We had the piINHese
Of seeing perhaps more Of Mr.. Whistler during
the last ten years of his life than any or MS
other friends, and he has on many OCCASIONS
expressed to the hope that no picture or ms
would ever be hung again on the walls OF Bur
lington House OF ever be included in one Of
the English national collections. The reason
FOR his strong desire 10 deprive England OF any
Of his work las far as he was able TO 90 so) IS
easily explained by the behavior Of the govern
ing body Of the Royal Academy toward him
and the attitude Of English critics and profeS-
toward his work until other countries
recognized in him the greatest master OF the
nineteenth century. i must be the fervent hope
Of every friend Of Mr.. Whistler that his wish
in these particulars should be respected. IheIa
can be no question Of an ameEde honorable
where the very suggestion Of II would have
seemed an insult
Other writers have been inspired to rush into
print apropos OF this question. One Of them.
in THE Chronicle" recalls that when corrected
for calling Burne-Jones an r a. rather than an
A r A. Whistler retorted that 1t was differ
ence without a distinction. and it is added that
In one OF the last letters he ever wrote he sur
veyed the art Of England and mentioned among
worthless assets the blank of Burlington
House" The same writer. by the way. asserts !
that the title of Whistler's famous book. The /
Gentle Art of Making Enemies not his /
own. but invented by his American pub |
Usher According to The Chronicle" letter /
of Whistler to the late Mr.. Leyland is extant, |
in which be writes y say l can't thank you |
too much for the name 'Nocturne' as the title |
for my moonlights il does so POLITICALLY say all /
I want TO say, and 80 more than I wish" It |
seems a little early TO begin the posthumous /
campaign by which so many great men suffer, |
pretty nearly everything they ever accom-
plished being blithely attributed to some one
else. But we must quote more Of the letters
recently printed in London, one from the Editor
Of 1.-THE Magazine of Art in which there is no
speculation as to Mr. Whistler and the Royal
Academy. but in which there are some facts. 1t
runs follows:
Mr.. Whistler contributed in all thirty-four
works TO the Academy, the first in 1888, the
last ia 1879 mot 1871 as Mr.. Quilter says.
The concise catalogue of them IS follows:
1859, two exhibits; 1860 six; 1861, four; 1862,
three: 1858 seven; 1864 two; 1860, four; 1867, |
three: 1870. one; 1872 one: 1879, one. These
sixteen pictures-so that Mr.. Cutters
expression that ION several occasions previous
to 1874 the artist had small pictures hung is
scarcely adequate. There We're also twelve
stchings and six dry points.
The pictures included ':At the Piano" 1850.
la Mere Gerard" QS6I. THE Twenty-ffth OF
December. 1860, on the Thames" and Alone
with the Tide" 1882 The Last Of Old West
minister 1883. Mapping" and Die LANCE
Iizen-of the Six Marks ds6D. THE Golden
Screen "Old Battersea Bridge" 1.-The Little
White Girl" and THE Scarf OS65), Sym
Dhony in White. No. III" ''Battersea" and Sea
and Rain" QS6O. ION the Balcony" OST0) and
Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of
the painters mother" OS72 not 1874 as stated
by Mr.. Quilter). It Will thus be seen that at
least six OF Mr.. Whister's most famous pict-
ures. belonging 10 his most interesting early
period, We're first shown in the Royal Academy.
At the trial Whistler VS.. Ruskin," the plain
TIFF said Il exhibited my first picture at the
Academy. 1 have continually exhibited
at the Royal Academy. The last picture I ex-
hibited was the portrait of my mother.
have sent no pictures since then At that time
the Grosvenor Gallery opened" This taken
with his further evidence seems to establish !
the fact that it the hospitality of the
Grosvenor, the certainty of being well hung
and OF being accorded places Of honor on the
handsome walls of the fashionable gallery which
the artist IN Withholding from Bur
lington House. And yet we find him leaving a
p-pc card, as it were. in 1879 on the Academy
IN his etching of "Old Putney Bridge" fcata-
logue No. 1888.
It is true that EIr. Whistler was free in his
denunciations OF the Academy both in talk and
In print; perhaps 1t this attitude OF bitter