DOI Heft:
No.127 (October, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Way, T. R.: Mr. Whistler as a lithographer
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19880#0033
James McNeill Whistler
great force of colour are few; the very delicate
almost silver-point treatment is to be found over
and over again in the earliest as in the latest
period, but one is never wearied with any same-
ness of treatment. I do not believe any other
artist who has worked during the century of litho-
graphy's existence has exploited the possibilities
of the art so much as he. As yet no comprehen-
sive exhibition of these prints has been seen, but
when it is, the art itself will rise in public estima-
tion as will also the artist's work in it. His
knowledge of lithography, and his confidence
that what he had drawn would produce the
print he wanted, can be realised when it is
known that it was his habit whilst in France to
send the transfers by post to my father, and
when the proofs reached Whistler he ordered
what number he wanted at the moment; some
thirty or forty subjects were done in this way,
including the Brittany and Luxembourg Garden
drawings, and on only about three of them
did he require to retouch the stones. This cer-
tainty of handling was brought home to me in what
has always seemed a remarkable incident. One
afternoon, late in 1896, he started drawing a por-
trait of my father on transfer paper. Standing in
one room by the window, he looked through a door-
way at his subject standing at the far end of an
inner room. The model's figure was lit up from
below by a gas-heating stove, and cast a great
shadow on the wall behind. Twice the drawing was
begun and discarded, the second drawing being
nearly finished; a third time he began and made an
excellent portrait, but in the interest of the occa-
sion, and the desire not to disturb him, I (being in
the inner room) did not notice how the darkness
had crept on. It suddenly occurred to me that
Whistler could not possibly see properly what he
was drawing, and going to light the gas I found
him hard at work. " Why, Mr. Whistler, you are
quite in the dark ! You cannot see— you are drawing
by feeling!" "Almost, Tom, almost," was his
reply.
In the article which I wrote in 1896 in this
magazine, the prints then on exhibition at the Fine
Art Society's Gallery were dealt with, and the
present note* is rather intended as a reminiscence
of personal matters which have occurred in my
dealings with Whistler whilst he was working
at lithography than either an attempt to catalogue
the prints or to write an appreciation of them
But a little more must be added about those
which were drawn after that exhibition, because,
fine as are all those which had been done before,
yet these last thirty represent the supreme climax,
as it were, of his lithographic work, and show
great force of colour are few; the very delicate
almost silver-point treatment is to be found over
and over again in the earliest as in the latest
period, but one is never wearied with any same-
ness of treatment. I do not believe any other
artist who has worked during the century of litho-
graphy's existence has exploited the possibilities
of the art so much as he. As yet no comprehen-
sive exhibition of these prints has been seen, but
when it is, the art itself will rise in public estima-
tion as will also the artist's work in it. His
knowledge of lithography, and his confidence
that what he had drawn would produce the
print he wanted, can be realised when it is
known that it was his habit whilst in France to
send the transfers by post to my father, and
when the proofs reached Whistler he ordered
what number he wanted at the moment; some
thirty or forty subjects were done in this way,
including the Brittany and Luxembourg Garden
drawings, and on only about three of them
did he require to retouch the stones. This cer-
tainty of handling was brought home to me in what
has always seemed a remarkable incident. One
afternoon, late in 1896, he started drawing a por-
trait of my father on transfer paper. Standing in
one room by the window, he looked through a door-
way at his subject standing at the far end of an
inner room. The model's figure was lit up from
below by a gas-heating stove, and cast a great
shadow on the wall behind. Twice the drawing was
begun and discarded, the second drawing being
nearly finished; a third time he began and made an
excellent portrait, but in the interest of the occa-
sion, and the desire not to disturb him, I (being in
the inner room) did not notice how the darkness
had crept on. It suddenly occurred to me that
Whistler could not possibly see properly what he
was drawing, and going to light the gas I found
him hard at work. " Why, Mr. Whistler, you are
quite in the dark ! You cannot see— you are drawing
by feeling!" "Almost, Tom, almost," was his
reply.
In the article which I wrote in 1896 in this
magazine, the prints then on exhibition at the Fine
Art Society's Gallery were dealt with, and the
present note* is rather intended as a reminiscence
of personal matters which have occurred in my
dealings with Whistler whilst he was working
at lithography than either an attempt to catalogue
the prints or to write an appreciation of them
But a little more must be added about those
which were drawn after that exhibition, because,
fine as are all those which had been done before,
yet these last thirty represent the supreme climax,
as it were, of his lithographic work, and show