File:Life of James McNeill Whistler, (1911) (14783549205).jpg

Identifier: jamesmcnei00penn (find matches)
Title: Life of James McNeill Whistler,
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Pennell, Elizabeth Robins,
Subjects: American Art
Publisher: J. B. Lippincott company
Contributing Library: Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Metropolitan New York Library Council - METRO

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re. What Whistler and Marksdid was so entirely themselves and nobody else, so original or quaint,that they were certainly the favourites. Breezy, buoyant and debonair, sunny and affectionate, heseemed to George Boughton, who could not remember the time when Whistlers sayings and doings did not fill the artistic air, nor whenhe failed to give a personal touch, a something distinct to hisappearance. His cool suit of linen duck and his jaunty straw hat were conspicuous in London, where personality of dress was morestartling than in Paris. Boughton refers to a flying trip to Paris atthis period, when he was flush of money and lovely in attire.Others recall meeting him, armed with two umbrellas, a white anda black, his practical preparation for all weathers. Val Prinsep speaksof the pink silk handkerchief stuck in his waistcoat, but this must havebeen later. A brisk little man, conspicuous from his swarthy com-plexion, his gleaming eye-glass, and his shock of curly black hair, amid56 (1860
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— - C The Beginnings in London which shone his celebrated white lock, is Val Prinseps descriptionof him in the fifties. But the white lock is not seen in any contemporary painting oretching. It was first introduced, as far as we can discover, in hisportrait owned by the late Mr. McCulloch and in the etching Whistlerwith the White Lock, 1879, though there may be earlier work showingit. We never asked him about it, and his family, friends, and con-temporaries, whom we have asked, cannot explain it. Some say that itwas a birthmark, others that he dyed all his hair save the one lock.But he did not dye his hair. Du Maurier, according to Dr. Williamson,attributed it to a wound, either by bullet or sword-cut, received atValparaiso : the wound was sewn up, the white lock appeared almostimmediately. Mr. Theodore Roussel tells a somewhat similar story.But we think if this were so, Whistler would have told us of it. Inan exhibition of oil paintings and pastels by Whistler held in theMetropolit

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