New-York tribune., 1921-12-18
Whistler and + lis Companions
Pictured in Vivid Journal
The Pennells Add Valuable Volume to the
Important Literature on
# Whistler

| in the record Of his studio life anc
partly in flood Of anecdotes, in rich
anthology of his sayings His point OF
view is everything and it is to be
brought out by paying attention tc
every movement of his agile mind. The
Pennells never miss trick.
Contemporaries
When they go into a phase Of his re-
lation to the world about him they
practically exhaust it. They tell us
about his earlier days in London anc
Paris, about his travels on the Cont
nent. They give us whenever possible
the memories of his old companions
We see as in mirror his high spirits
his courage in times of stress, his re-
sourcefulness, and. above all, his stead
fast passion for his art. From time ia
time we get Illuminating flashes on his
attitude toward other painters, old mas.
ters and his contemporaries. His
views, by the way, are not too often
enthusiastic Sargents painting seems
to have been not at all to his taste. His
critical point of view, if we may call it
such, is we'll illustrated in the follow
ing passage:
well, you know, found St.
Peters fine, with its great yellow
walls, the, interior too big, perhaps,
but you had only to go inside to
know where Wren got his ideas-how
he, we'll, you know, robbed Peters to
pay PauPs! And l liked the Vati
can, the Swiss Guards, great big fell
lows, lolling about as in Dumas: they
made you think of D'Artagan, Aramis
and the others. And Michael Angelo?
A tremendous fellow, yes; the fres-
Goes IN the Sistine Chapel, interest
ing as pictures, but with all the legs
and arms of the figures sprawling
everywhere could not see the deco
rations. There can be no decora-
ton without repose; a tremendous
Iellow, but not so much in the
David and other things was shown
IN Rome and Florence as I'M that one
diminished picture at the National
Gallery. There is often elegance in
the Loggie of Raphael, but the big
frescoes of the Stanze did not inter-
est me: And Rome was awful-a
hard, blue sky all the time, a glar-
ing sun and strong wind. And it
was the same liz Florence-a sky as
cold and hard and blue, and wind
blowing"
Let the pedant worshipping az the
Roman shrines of Michael ANGELO and
Raphael rage and imagine a vain thing
The foregoing passage may not be
criticism, but it is pure Whistler
which is to say that it is magnifcently
honest. In matters Of art he did moi
know how to bow to convention. He
thought his own thoughts.
We wish that all his adventure,
were quotable in as brief, compact
notes as the one which tells us of his
stay in Rome. But fully to appreciate
them the reader must have the nara.
tive intact, as, for example, in the case
Of his famous voyage to Valparaiso
and the return journey on which he
kicked the Marquis de Marmalade
across the deck with painstaking thor
oughness. Or there is the ramble in
Germany with his friend Ernest, on
very scant funds. They had to leave
Whistler's etchings in knapsack with
the landlord at Cologne and start back
for Paris on foot "When we got tc
Alx-la- -Chapelle, it was all right again
went to see the American Consul
got some money, and did the rest /
the journey in comfort" We will war.
rant that the American Consul re-
joiced in his opportunity. But one
must read the Pencils to realize why
to get the debonair charm Of Whistler
his gayety, his wit. They disclose all
the Bohemianism of his more youthful
days, his relations with his models, his
friendships, and, of course, his quar-
rels. Sometimes his comrades are as
engaging as he is. Witness the incom-
parable Charles Augustus Howell He
has whole chapter to himself, and
deserves it. The sketches of Fantin,
of Legros, of Oulevy, Of a host of
others, could not be bettered for vivid
ness and for entertainment.
Whistler's Cosmos