Life of James McNeill Whistler, . re of his defects—in drawing, for instance. Ican remember with verbal accuracy some very striking talks we hadon the subject. To my judgment he was the most absolutely truthfulman about himself that I ever met. I never knew him to hide an opinionor a thought, nor to try to excuse an action. The picture Mr. Jameson refers to was called Three Figures, Pinkand Grey* in the London Memorial Exhibition. It alone was carriedout of the Six or Eight Schemes or Projects in which Whistler was tryingto combine Japanese and classical motives, expressing a beauty of formand
Life of James McNeill Whistler, . re of his defects—in drawing, for instance. Ican remember with verbal accuracy some very striking talks we hadon the subject. To my judgment he was the most absolutely truthfulman about himself that I ever met. I never knew him to hide an opinionor a thought, nor to try to excuse an action. The picture Mr. Jameson refers to was called Three Figures, Pinkand Grey* in the London Memorial Exhibition. It alone was carriedout of the Six or Eight Schemes or Projects in which Whistler was tryingto combine Japanese and classical motives, expressing a beauty of formand design that haunted him, and was perhaps best realised in someof the pastel studies. He never ceased to make these studies. Thereare pastels, chalk drawings, and etchings in which the separate figuresof the Projects may be found, studies for the series; one was workedout as a fan, another like a cameo. The second version of the ThreeFigures, enlarged from a smaller design, Whistler explained to Mr. * See Chapter [1868. PORTRAIT OF WHISTLER BY HIMSELF CHALK DRAWING In the possession of Thomas Way, Esq. (See tage 78) Chelsea Days Alan S. Cole, was an arrangement he wanted to paint, and he thendrew, with a sweep of the brush, the back of the stooping figure toshow what he meant. W. M. Rossetti most likely referred to it whenhe wrote in his diary for July 28, 1867 : Whistler is doing on a largish scale for Leyland the subject ofwomen with flowers, and has made coloured sketches of four or fiveother subjects of the like class, very promising in point of conceptionof colour and arrangement. The Projects were his first scheme of decoration for Leyland. Thecanvases are about the same size. They are painted with liquidcolour, the canvas often showing through. The handling in all savethe Venus, shown in the Paris Memorial Exhibition and worked onin his later years, is more direct than anything he ever did. Theyhave the same relation to his pictures as the sketches of Rubens a
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