Whistler as I knew him . looked round upon the pictures. This exhibi-tion, he said, is enervating and discouraging beyondwords. Here is a collection of pictures which is, ofcourse, common and interesting work for the mostpart; but there is a certain smart handling, a certainsuperficial cleverness and facility. Do you know,Menpes, I couldnt do that? Of course, he wasright. He realised how hard it was for him to pro-duce an effect. It did not come easily to him. Heoften placed a picture on an easel and talked about itin an airy way, as if it had been blown on; but,as a matter of fact, it w
Whistler as I knew him . looked round upon the pictures. This exhibi-tion, he said, is enervating and discouraging beyondwords. Here is a collection of pictures which is, ofcourse, common and interesting work for the mostpart; but there is a certain smart handling, a certainsuperficial cleverness and facility. Do you know,Menpes, I couldnt do that? Of course, he wasright. He realised how hard it was for him to pro-duce an effect. It did not come easily to him. Heoften placed a picture on an easel and talked about itin an airy way, as if it had been blown on; but,as a matter of fact, it was invariably the result of ex-treme care and pains. It was characteristic of the manto be disturbed and troubled about work which reallydid not count at all. How foolish that trick of thebrush is ! he would say; adding, in the same breath,But how does he do it, Menpes, do you think? I remember once examining some water colours NOCTURNE—AMSTERDAM IN SNOW From a water-colour drawing in the possession ofJ. J. Cowan, THE PAINTER 83 with Whistler at the Fine Art Society. They werepictures of Venice, and painted in clear, transparent,flowing tones, with great dexterity. It struck onethat the man had accomplished everything he hadintended. Whistler told me that he had met thisman while he was painting in Venice. He himselfwas then working upon those marvellous pastels onbrown paper which are now invaluable. This artisthappened to be staying at the hotel, and he made afoolish bet that he could go out at once and producepastels which would be as fine as, if not finer than,those of the Master. Whistler accepted the challenge;and the man went out and brought back, with greatassurance and in a surprisingly short space of time, aseries of pastels on brown paper which he consideredto be as fine as, if not finer than, those of the himself unblushingly asserted that he consideredthe drawing to be cleaner and crisper, and the colourfiner, than Whistlers. When the work of the
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