International studio (25.1905)

grandeur in his conceptions, and in his decorative
subjects he does not manifest any very exalted
understanding of what is possible in decoration.
Yet, in spite of his shortcomings, he exhibited a
certain quality of daintiness—an understanding of
the suggestive values of line and tone—and a con
ception of colour-values such as we often look for
in vain in works of those who have risen to a
great reputation. In his line-work we do not find
such displays of strength and sturdiness as gave
character to the plates of Rembrandt and Albert
Diirer. His colour schemes are lacking in
grandeur and nobility. An ad-
mirer and to some extent an imi-
tator of Velasquez, he falls short
in expressing the sentiment that
the master arrived at through his
methods ; and his decorative sense
is feeble when compared with that
displayed by Puvis de Chavannes or
Burne-Jones.
In striving, therefore, to give due
appreciation to Whistler's work we
must not allow our enthusiasm to run
away with us, we must not place him
on a pinnacle which his work does not
warrant. His position in relation to
art is the position which the art of
Japan, especially in its later phases,
bears to the great art of the world.
Whistler's inspiration was undoubt-
edly derived more from Japanese
art than from any other source. The
daintiness of colouring, his con-
ception of composition and of the
balance of parts, is essentially Jap-
anese in its character. More perhaps
than anyone else, he Europeanised
Japanese ideas, and yet as an ex-
ponent of these ideas he falls short
of his great Japanese prototypes.
AH this we realised again and
again in looking through this exhibi-
tion of his collected works. Some of
his drawings are frankly Japanese.
This phase of his art is well repre-
sented in the painting which we have
been favoured with permission to re-
produce in colours as a supple-
ment to this number. Essentially
Japanese was his feeling for " se-
lection," especially displayed in his
later etchings, lithographs, pastels
and water-colours—of the import-
228

ance he always attached to the formation and
placing of each line, each space and dot of
colour. The emblem which he elected to use
as a sort of trade-mark, and which is commonly
described as a butterfly, was remarkably charac-
teristic of him. His touch had the dainty
lightness of the flight of a butterfly. He played,
as it were, with his brush, in a light and aerial
manner. He carried his lines always to the right
place, and left little spaces exactly where they
would be wanted to complete the balance of his
drawing.

ETCHING

BY J. MCNEILL WHISTLER