New-York tribune., 1911-11-26
Matters of Art

! OF those who stand idle in the market
I place because no man hath hired them"
Forthwith he waved the young English
man off the map: The Pencils in their
biography Of Whistler, report him on
I the same subject in much the same
mood. Abiding to their acquaintance
with Beardsley, ne said Why do you
get mixed up with such things? Look
at him, He is just like his drawings;
h is all hairs and peacock's plumes-
hairs on his head. hairs on his fingers
ends hairs in his ears hairs on his toes.
And what shoes he wears-hairs growing
out of them" But time brought the
great man 10 another point of view, as
his biographerS thus relate:
Years later, in Buckingham street
Whistler met BeaUdsley, and got 10 like
not only him. ds every 0Ody did but his
work one night when Whistler was with
ms Bcardsley turned mp, as always when
Of his latest work under his arm. This
time II held the Illustrations for The
Rape Of the Lock, which he had Just
made. Whistler. who always saw every
thing that was being done. had seen the
yellow Book started in 1894 and ne dis
liked II a. much as me then dlSlked
' EedrG-IsN.
had also seen the illustrations TO "Salome.' 90
disli<ng them. too, probably because of
oscar Wilde; me knew many Of the other
drawings, one OF which, whether intention
remiuiscencc Of Mrs Whistler. and he
no doubt knew that Beardslcv had made r.
caicature OF him which follower care
fully left i'm cab. When Beardsley
opened the portfolio and began 90 show
MS the Rape Of tine Lock-. Whistler
looked at them first indirercnty, then
T with interest, then with delight. And then
he said slowly, Aubrey, / have made a
very great mistakc-yOu are a Very great
Z artist" And the boy burst ont CRYING.
. All Whistler could say, when he could say
/ anything, was Il mean i'll mean it,
, mean it,
Much water has gone under the bridges
since then. Beardsley has hardly been
carried 10 the point Of general recog-
milton rs "a very great artist" but ap-
probation Of his work has at all events
been fixed little nearer 10 Whistler's
later Judgment than 10 his first disdain-
ful view of the matter. This has been
due 20 the gradual disentanglement OF
the craftsmans technical qualities from
the unfortunate web Of ideas in which
they were enmeshed 4 kind Of miasma
floats above The structure Of Beardsley's
artistic character, but blow 1t away and
al least you find d structure there, merits
too solid and too brilliant 10 be ignored.
Ills commentators have sought for me
influences that formed him. one finds
them in the art Of Japan and in the
lovely designs Of the "Hypnerotoma-
chia." But after a little while one sees
that tho gift that carried him through
was purely instructive. II was a gift for
line and gift for decoration. The lat
ter is the one that more quickly makes
itself felt. We marvel at and delight in
the uncanny adroitness with which he
fills given space, with which he turns
the page of a book into something new
and strange. and yet keeps 1t a page of
book. II is always uncanny, this skill
OF his. The touch is mysteriously sim
pie and sure. lie viii put one Of his fig
ures iGto more than fantastic attitude
and sill the composition is perfectly adj