James Whistler

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 12

James Whistler

"GENTLE ART OP MAKING ENEMIES ”

James McNeill Whistler is renowned as a painter ahd etcher of the first fabk. It Is in danger of being forgotten that he was highly gifted with the pen ; and might have won equal . renown as a writer. But he had strong views about venturing , “beyond the procihots of my own science.” His cele. brated “Ten O’clock” lecture cost him agonies of preparation’ ahd heartsearching, and he dismally feared it would be a failure (says Reginald Berkeley In “John o’ London’s’?). Indeed, the most effective piece or prose he ever pended was a mere few hundred words of protest—a gem of fine English, in whioh he annihilated Swinburne for the superficial ■ versatility that sought to combine art-criticism with* poetry, when toe poet attacked the “Ten O’clock” in a torrent of rhetoric. _ His hook—“ The Gentle Art of Making Enemies”—is dedicated (the joy of . it ft “to the rare Few, who, early In Life, have rid Themselves of toe Frleridship of Many.’'’ There' may be read the record of Whistler v. Ruskin (claim £looo—award one farthing), judiciously edited into a readable com-

pass, and enlivened by the painter’* marginal notes- —the' origin of Whistler’*; war upon the critics, Not many of us Would care (or even dare) to see, our ancient letters to the Press, exhumed from their winding) sheets.. But, the Whistler vintage keeps, and even improves with age. Thus, in a letter to the .“Observer”:—Sir, —In your report (of a .sale at Christie’s) I read the following:—/ “The next work put-upon the easel was. a nocturne’in blue and eilver by. J. M. Whistler. It was received With hisses ’ May I beg . . . to acknowledge the distinguished, though 1 fear un- ' conscious, compliment so .publicly paid. . It,.is rare, that recognitioti so cam- ■ plete is made during, the lifetime of the painter. . . . And what of . this, to a paper whose art-critic,had blundered?— The private assassin you keep, for us, need not be' hampered by mere cqnnoisseurship in the perpetration of his duty. . . but lie should not compromise his master’s reputation for brilliancy, and print things that he who runs may scoff at. . ; I could cut my own throat better; and, if need be, in case of his dismissal,! offer my services. There were several encounters with Oscar Wilde, originating over the “Ten O'clock” lecture, Which Wilde attacked with feline daintiness and sharpness,: betraying, however, what seemed to be an ignorance of painters in the process. Whistler, spoiling for a fight, plunged Into the correspondence columns of .the “World” with a gibleat 1 the Poet” for the “naivete” of his choice of painters—-“ Benjamin West

and Paul Delaroche” •<. and brought upon himself a stunning rejoinder:— Dear Butterfly,—By the aid of a .biographical dictionary 1 made the discovery that, there were once two painters, called Benjamin West and Paul Delaroche, who. rashly lectured upon art. Ae of their work nothing remains, I. conclude that they explained themselves away. N.B.—-Be warned in time, James.. . . Oscar Wilde. Whistler nursed the retort in silence. About a year later Wilde yas, put op the Committee of the “Natlobal Art Exhibition,” and the painter renewed the attack. He wrote an open, letter to the committee, a .scathing piece of irony, which ended: “Oscar. . . with no more sense of a picture than of the fit of a coat” (a dig at the poet’s attempts at dress reform) “has the courage of the opinions . . . of others.*' To which Wilde replied in the World”: “Alas, this is very sad. With our James vulgarity begins at heme, and should be allowed to stay

there”—a ! riposte not .quite up to specificatiqn. : , Before turning to the serious side of the book, which, despite the skill; of: the scalp-hunter, is the best part, one n ay. be allowed to pau se a impute and draw a deep breath “ of astonishment at “the ways of these Victorians. What paper to-day .would not toerely print an exchange -of between (shall we say?) Mr Augustas John and Mr Somerset Maugham, biit adtually spur on the combatants' tp further affrcnts? ' : " . r • • The famous “Ten O’clock” ..lecture is a composition; that poems to the student of io-day so admirihly truq in its main contentions that it is far from easy to understand tlio-outcry against it,. c nd' far more difficult to fathom the rc crons that, prompted. Wilde and Swin-, burne, in particular, to attack it,. Set-’ ting aside its artistic merit, its literary beauty is unquestionable. , , : Consider this exquisite fragment:— And when the evening mist clothes the riverside -with po6trv as with a Veil, and the poor .buildings lose themselves ip the diin sky, • and the toll chimney? berome campanili, and’ the warehouses are palaces - ir. the' night, and the whole.city hangs in the heavens . . . - the wayfarer hastens home. • .Whistler made one mistake in his' “Ten O’clock,”' it reappears in almost everything he wrote It waß a natural' nistake in, one so tormented by mil. understanding. HO blamed the public, and sneered at their*'incapacity to re: cognise the beauty of his work. It was not the fault of-the public. It was the fcult of the critics. 1 • ; It is pleasant to iecall that in later life Whistler was warmly accepted by s the forgiving public that be had despised and could never-forgive. i v