. The Whistler book; a monograph of the life and positin in art of James McNeill Whistler, together with a careful study of his more important works . a butterflys wing, and go home atnight satisfied with having made a few brush-strokes after altering them a hundred times,but these commercial travellers of art willnever know the painters pure delight, the con-templation of hfe, the aspiration to perfection,the lifting of beauty out of the dead worship of art, such absolute disinterest-edness, such fidehty to painting cannot be toohighly esteemed. And it was Whistler who proclaimed
. The Whistler book; a monograph of the life and positin in art of James McNeill Whistler, together with a careful study of his more important works . a butterflys wing, and go home atnight satisfied with having made a few brush-strokes after altering them a hundred times,but these commercial travellers of art willnever know the painters pure delight, the con-templation of hfe, the aspiration to perfection,the lifting of beauty out of the dead worship of art, such absolute disinterest-edness, such fidehty to painting cannot be toohighly esteemed. And it was Whistler who proclaimed thatart cannot be taught but must be an inborngift, that ever3i:hing can be acquired by longpractice save that one supernatural quality ofgenius which alone can transform a painterinto a great artist. What is there in these pic-tures produced every year, here and in Parisand everyw^here? Portraits, landscapes, ordi-nary delineations of prosaic scenes that maybe painted v>ith considerable skill and that maylook pretty enough, but that are absolutely in-capable of evoking a fine and subtle , the men upon whose shoulders the black. The Story of the Beautiful 249 mantle of Wliistlers muse may fall, must real-ize, that it is a vain endeavour — as futile ascloud shadows on a summer day — miless theyknow that they can hold her, the capriciousjade, as they possess the magic wand to callher. This was the spirit in which Whistler con-ceived art. It had long faded out of Euro-pean art. It was rapidly deteriorating in theOrient. Why could not a single man, evenwith the whole world against him, live up tosome big ideal! To be an artist simply forones own gratification. To fashion somethingbeautiful simply because one feels like doing purify ones mind by projecting into lifewhat is accumulated there by some curiousgrace of nature. Whistler undertook the task,and created a new art form that may be des-tined to rule art for the next thousand years. A new art form is a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectwhistle, bookyear1910
