New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-02

No news of the importation OF a
famous picture could be more interest
ing than that which has just been pub
lishcd in The Tribune about the pur-
chase of Whistler's Lady Meux" for
SeO0.0e0. In bringing this canvas to
the United States the Duveens bring to
Us one of the American masters major
performances, the high repute of which
amongst those who have seen it has
long piqued the curiosity of thousands
TO whom it is unfamiliar. 1t Is Jar
nestly to be hoped that before it passes
into some private collection it may be
placed on exhibition in this city. We
reproduce it herewith from a photo
graph signed by Whistler himself, and
cite from the biography by the Pen
nells some details of the painters ex-
Terience with the sitter.
Lady Meux, or, rather, Mrs. Meux,
as she then was, came to him in the
early eighties, when he was reestab-
lished in lite Street on his return
from Venice. 1t is said that commits
sions were difficult for him to come
at. the Ruskin trial and the suisse
quent bankruptcy having temporarily
lowered the artists vogue amongst
fashionable patrons. NJ. Duret is quoted
by the Pencils as saying that it needed
courage to be painted by Whistler at
this time. The courageous ones were
in luck, for he was never better in
spired. Lady Meux ordered a full
length. "She was handsome" we are
told, "of moro luxuriant type than
the women who usually sat to him. "
He made of her an arrangement in
White and BLACK" and produced d
work which, according to Duret, con-
tanned something mysterious and fan
tastic,' setting the figure clothed in
dark velvet against shadowy back
ground, with a gorgeous cloak of white
fur bringing a note of splendor into the
scheme. Whistler himself used to call
it his beautiful Black Lady, Lady
Meux liked it SO much that she posed
for another portrait, the "Harmony in
Pink and Grey" which the Duveens
have acquired. She posed wearing a
curious round hat low over her head
and face, and high bodice with long
sleeves, cut in the ugly fashion of the
day, which cannot conceal or deform
the beauty Of her figure" Neither
could the now old-fsshioned dress less
en- the magic of Whistler's art, which
even in a little reproduction one car
see is here at one of its consummate
stages. He painted third portrait OF
his valiant supporter, this time one on
u smaller scale. 1t remained, his biog-
1aphers think, unfinished, and they cite
from Mr.. Harper Pennington an anec'
dote concerning ii which is too char
acteristic and TOO droll to be omitted
He says:
The only time 1 saw Jimmy
"stumped" for a reply was at q sit
ting Of Lady Meux for the portrait
in sables). For some reason Jimmy
became nervous - exasperated - and
impairment. Touched by something
he had said, her ladyship turned soft
~ toward him and remarked, quite
softly: "See here, Jimmy Whistler.
You keep q civil tongue in that head
of yours, or / viii have some one in
to finish those portraits you have
made of mel"-with the faintest en-
phasis on Finish" Jimmy fairly
danced with rage. He came up to
Lady Meux, his long brush tightly
grasped, and actually quivering in his
hand held tight against his side. He
stammered, spluttered-and finally
gasped out: How dare you? Haw
dare you but that, after all. was
not an answer, was it? Lady Meux
did not sit again. Jimmy never
spoke of the incident afterward. and
| was sorry TO have witnessed it.
There is an amusing caricature.
drawn by some unknown humorist for
"The London Graphic in 1911, and now,
according to Mr.. Gallatin's book, in the
possession of the Rosenbach Company,
Of Philadelphia, which represents
Whistler as painting all three portraits
Of Lady Meux al once. The Pencils
note that when the Duveen portrait
WAS exhibited at the Grosyenor in 1882.
along with several other pictures, some
Of the critics we're still inclined to find
material for mirth in Whistler's art
But they add also that it was from this
period onward that he WAS no Longer
alone in fighting his battles. The por-
trait Of Lady Meux was unquestionablg
one of the productions that served to
turn the tide.