Life of James McNeill Whistler, . d not make The Little WhittGirl at the Academy better understood than The White Girl had beenin Berners Street. The rare few could appreciate its charm and exquisiteness with Mr. W. M. Rossetti, who found that it was crucially tested by its proximity to the flashing white in Mr. Millais*Esther but that it stood the test, retorting delicious harmonyfor daring force, and would shame any other contrast. But thegeneral opinion was the other way. The Athencsum distinguisheditself by regretting that Whistler should make the most bizarreof bipeds out of the women he
Life of James McNeill Whistler, . d not make The Little WhittGirl at the Academy better understood than The White Girl had beenin Berners Street. The rare few could appreciate its charm and exquisiteness with Mr. W. M. Rossetti, who found that it was crucially tested by its proximity to the flashing white in Mr. Millais*Esther but that it stood the test, retorting delicious harmonyfor daring force, and would shame any other contrast. But thegeneral opinion was the other way. The Athencsum distinguisheditself by regretting that Whistler should make the most bizarreof bipeds out of the women he painted. There was praise for twoother pictures. Subtle beauty of colour and almost mysticaldelicacy of tone were discovered in The Gold Screen, and coloursuch as painters love in the Old Batter sea Bridge, afterwards Brownand Silver. This is the beautiful Battersea, with the touch of redin the roofs of the opposite shore, the link between the early paintingson the river and the Nocturnes that were to follow. The Scarf, a92 [1865. THE MORNING BEFORE THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM ONCE A WEEK, VOL. VII, P. 2IO{See page 71) , Chelsea Days picture we do not recognise, attracted less attention, and Whistler,the year before, declared one of the most original artists of the day was now dismissed as one who might be called half a great artist. Stranger than this was the change in the attitude of the Frenchcritics. In 1863 they overwhelmed him with praise. Two yearslater they had hardly a good word for him. Levi Legrange, forgottenas he merits, wrote the criticism of the Royal Academy of 1865 for theGazette des Beaux-Arts, and all he could see in The Little White Girlwas a weak repetition of The White Girl, a wearisome variation ofthe theme of white ; really, he said, it was quite witty of the Acade-micians, who could have refused it and the two Japanese pictures, togive them good places and so deliver them to judgment. And thenhe praised Horsley and Prinsep, Lesli
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