. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. es of naturewhich Mr. Whistler has been the first Western artist to appre-ciate and to depict, with especial and persistent effort, in theextensive series of studies which figure in his work under thename of Nocturnes, and which are absolutely original, per-sonal, and unlike anything that has ever been done nocturnes, in their frames of pale gold sprinkled withsilver and combed with turquoise blue, have disconcerted peo-ple more than anything that Mr. Whistler has painted; andthis fact need not astonish us, for sometimes they reach the
. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. es of naturewhich Mr. Whistler has been the first Western artist to appre-ciate and to depict, with especial and persistent effort, in theextensive series of studies which figure in his work under thename of Nocturnes, and which are absolutely original, per-sonal, and unlike anything that has ever been done nocturnes, in their frames of pale gold sprinkled withsilver and combed with turquoise blue, have disconcerted peo-ple more than anything that Mr. Whistler has painted; andthis fact need not astonish us, for sometimes they reach thevery limits of the painters art, and even penetrate beyond intothe artificial paradises of Poe and Baudelaire. The nocturne,as Mr. Whistler has often conceived it, is suggestive ratherthan evocative, and it may convey no meaning whatever unlessthe sympathetic spectator brings with him a store of observa-tions and souvenirs which will enable him to travel in thoughtover strange sites of sky and water that form magic and yetnatural PORTRAIT OF MISS the painting l>y James McNeil Whistler. AMERICAN ARTISTS AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 93 Mr. Whistler is great because from the beginning he gaveplay to his individuality, evolved a preconceived way of lookingat nature, or, in other words, a partipris to which he remainedtrue in spite of ridicule, raillery, neglect, and almost starvation. It is well enough to talk of the influence upon Mr. Whistlerof Velasquez and of the Japanese; but whatever influence ofthe kind he may have undergone was of the subtlest and theleast material kind; a man of Mr. Whistlers strong personalitycould not make use of the visual or technical formulas of oth-ers ; and even if he obtained clear knowledge of them, any at-tempt to put that knowledge into practice would hamper himand deprive him of all powers of spontaneous and happy ex-pression. By processes that are inexplicable, and thanks torare nervous and visual faculties combined wit
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