The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-06-20
FIRED FROM A$l.5OADAY JOB
and BECOMES A FAMOUS MASTER
By MARIE cApp1cK

Those who love the work of
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
will be interested in an article
which appeared recently in the
Philadelphia Inquirer, and which
throws additional light on the
artist, and shows that delicate
little map of an almost unknown
island, recently unearthed from
the dusty files of the Coast and
Geodetic Survey in Washington,
has brought wildly to light the
struggle and talent of one of the
greatest masters of the art of
etching the world has ever
known.
The Coast and Geodetic Sur
vey today prizes its short asso-
citation with James Abbott Nc
NeiIl Whistler while it bushes
over its treatment of him back
in 1854. The map recently dis
covered is an etching, and titled
Anacapa Island. 1t is the map
that cost Whistler his $3.50 day
Job. kicked him out of the serv-
ice of the United States and sent
him to Paris to become one of
the worlds greatest painters and
etchers.
Hero ic tho Glory.
Whistler had been discharged
from West Point after an argu-
ment with a professor, and was
refused admission to Annapolis
because of age requirements. He
finally got a job with the Coast
and Geodetic Survey in Wash
ington where he was engaged to
draw maps of islands, reefs and
harbor entrances for the guild
ance of mariners and naval Of
ficerS.
His penmanship and his skill
in etching were noted by his as
sociates. He was tWenty-one
and he hated the drudgery of
drawing cold lines to exact
measurements. He sought to in
ject little beauty and human
interest into the drawings. 1t
was his habit to complete his
work and then liven it up by
adding tiny porpoises, or flying
fish, or perhaps the head of
whale, or flock of wheeling
gulls.
In vain the pompous and ex-
acting officials rallied at the
young artist for presumption in
decorating official Typographical
charts.
Late in 1854 he was detailed to
make an etching of Anacapa Is
land in Santa Barbara Channel,
California. Two youngsters, ].
Young and c. A. knight, shared
the work of making the plate
with him, but, students of art
claim, the touch is entirely that
of Whistler.
When the drawing was finish
ed he idly added two little flights
of gulls wheeling over the east
ern end of the island. The copper
plate was finished and printed in
the report of the Survey in 1855.
When the print appeared, Cap
tain Benham, his superior, an
gered by the decorative touches,
Whistler.
He went to Paris, bearing his
orcher's stylus, to become the
worlds most famous etcher. But
for those wings flashing over the
island, the world today might be
without his famous Mother
and Washington would lack the
greatest collection of his etchings
in the world, housed in mag
nificent museum not far from
the place where he toiled for
$l.50 a day, and where he grav-
ed the map, copy of which is to
hang with his famed annie
Hayden" and Weary, 'sNec-
turn" and Balcony, valued at
from $4,000 to $4,000 each.
Whistler's whimsicalities, and
his hatred of conventions, which
made him notorious in Paris and
London later, was evident even
in the days of his youth. Joseph
Pennell, the famous art critic,
wrote that Whistler was indif-
ferent to any work except that
which interested him and that it
was impossible for him to re-
frain from putting life into any
thing he drew.
He loved to tease and to scam
dalize the martinets of the bu-
reau. Captain Benham was
Whistler's fathers friend and the
young artist was his protege; yet
upon him Whistler directed his
mischievous talents. Each artist
was furnished with magnifying
glass to use in sratching the tiny
lines on the copper plates. Whist
Ter impishly etched his own por-
trait in the form of a tiny devil
on his glass, and when Captain
Benham looked through it to
criticize a map, he beheld. in
stead of a coral reef, a hooking
little devil that looked exactly
like Whistler grinning at him.
He confiscated the glass. Years
later. an elderly man called at