enlightened Frenchmen who invested fifty francs in the modest little portfolio of the young and unknown etcher. If they or "their heirs, administrators, and assigns" " still possess them, they may have the satisfaction of knowing that they could sell them at nearly a hundred times the price which they originally cost.

The "French Set " included some veritable masterpieces-such as the "Kitchen," the "Mustard Woman," the "Vieille aux Loques," and the "Street in Saverne," which last-named print must be about the first of Whistler's magnificent series of night scenes, or.nocturnes as he called them. At about the same period he produced the "Rag Shop" and the two charming portraits of French children, "Bibi Lalouette" and "Bibi Valentin."

From Paris Whistler went to London and made his home with Sir Seymour Haden, who was then an eminent surgeon, but who afterward attained to much wider fame as an etcher of landscapes. It was while he was living there with his halfsister and shall we say, his half-brotherin-law, that Whistler etched most of the magnificent plates which are known as the "Thames Set." It consisted of sixteen etchings, and although he did very beautiful things in later years, my own conviction is that the Thames Set includes several of his supreme achievements. This opinion is fortified by that of Mr. Pennell. In writing of one of them, the "Black Lion Wharf," he calls it "one of the greatest engraved plates that has been produced in modern times," and he adds, "I would even say that it is the greatest etching of modern times were it not for the fact that it is but one of a set." Mr. Pennell goes on to commend other prints of the series, such as the " Forge " and the "Limeburner," and he adds, "This series alone is enough to win immortality for any man."

Mere verbal description of a picture cannot be otherwise than unsatisfying, but, fortunately for Americans in general and for New Yorkers in particular, probably the very best collection of Whistler's etchings which exists is on free exhibition to every one in New York. It can be visited at the Lenox Library, where

the very competent curator, Mr. Frank Weitenkampf, will show to visitors the magnificent collection which was formed by the late Samuel P. Avery and donated by him to the Public Library. No amount of money could duplicate it today; this could be done only in one way, and that is the way by which Napoleon Bonaparte enriched the gallery of the Louvre. He first conquered nearly all of the nations of Europe (England excepted), and he then carried off their finest art treasures to Paris. But this high-handed operation can never be repeated, and Mr. Avery was a man of peace; he made his living by buying and selling paintings, but whenever he bought a picture for himself it was pretty sure to be a simple etching in black and white and not a painting in oil colors. He already knew Whistler when the latter was a merry, harum-scarum young fellow in Paris, who took little care of the masterpieces he was producing. In those early and happy-go-lucky years Whistler would etch some great plate, and, not having the money to pay for the printing of a sufficient edition of proofs from it, he would pay for perhaps half a dozen. Then the etched copper would drift into the mysterious limbo whither all lost things disappear and whence they never return, or else—as plates of copper cost money-Whistler would have the surface of the plate planed off and use the old copper for a new etching. It was in these early years that Mr. Avery got possession of such rarities as the dry-point portraits. of Riault the wood-engraver, and of "Joe," the latter a beautiful portrait of a young girl. These two prints are now absolutely unprocurable, as is many another of which the noble-hearted Samuel P. Avery has made a free gift for the use of his fellow-citizens in New York and for the whole Nation.

When, in 1886, the distinguished London art critic and enthusiastic collector, Mr. Frederick Wedmore, undertook the making of a descriptive catalogue of Whistler's etchings, his first move was to call on the master himself. Whistler approved of the project, but said, in effect: "I can show you very little, but if you really wish to make

such a book you must first of all cross the Atlantic Ocean, go to New York, seek out Mr. Avery, and he can let you examine the material for your catalogue.". All of this was done, and in the introduction to his book Mr. Wedmore (who was working in London and writing for Englishmen) quaintly writes-without mentioning America or New York at all-" Mr. Avery, when Mr. Keppel took me to see him in East Thirty-eighth Street, put at my disposal everything he knew."

After twenty years of useful service Mr. Wedmore's book is likely to be partly superseded by the exhaustive catalogue which is now in preparation by some. enthusiastic gentlemen of New York. They are leaving no stone unturned in the course of their researches, and the result must be a book of great value.

Most of the plates of the Thames Set were etched in the year 1859, but "O fools and blind!"-no publisher would touch them until twelve years later, in the year 1871. All this is only a modern repetition of the action of the ancient people, who first persecuted and stoned their prophets and afterwards built sepulchers in their honor.

The copper plates of the sixteen Thames etchings were destroyed years ago, so that no more proofs from them can ever be printed; but how these beautiful things could have remained neglected for twelve years is still an unaccountable thing.

Besides the two sets of etchings already mentioned other sets were to follow, but in addition to these Whistler continued to produce detached etchings of high artistic value. About the year 1870 his method underwent a radical change. He temporarily discarded etching proper where the lines of the plate are corroded or 'bitten" with an acid-and took up dry-point, a process in which the copper plate is worked upon direct and without any "biting." Whistler's dry-points are characterized by extreme delicacy and refinement. Of necessity they are very rare, because a plate thus prepared wears out very quickly in the printing. In the In the case of some very delicately cut dry-points not more than half a dozen fine proofs can be obtained. Whistler was equally

master of the dry-point method whether he was making portraits such as those of the Leyland family or depicting some fascinating and elusive view of the Thames at London, the river that he loved so faithfully.

ness.

One of his Thames views deserves special mention because it was, in style, the precursor of the two magnificent "Venice Sets" which were to follow. I mean the "Adam and Eve Tavern, Old Chelsea.". It was etched, not dry-pointed, and was wrought in a manner then new to him, but which he afterward continued to practice to the end of his life. In the "Adam and Eve" the innovation is the short and broken character of the lines. In it, as well as in the succeeding Venice etchings, the result is an effect of the most charming vivacity and freshWhistler hated dullness in every form. The man, the artist, the writer, was never dull. Whistler couldn't be! After the Venice etchings came views in Holland and in France, as well as a series of little plates depicting ar-ships on the occasion of Queen Victoria's jubilee. These latest plates of his are still almost unknown to the public. For many years before his death he printed his own proofs because no outside printer could satisfy him, and after he died his heiress and her advisers decided that never again should a proof from any plate of his be printed by another hand. I think that this was a most pious and wise decision, made to do honor to the memory of the fastidious and exquisite artist.

It is a comfort to know that the greater part of Whistler's works are owned in America, and in America we have the most serious and most accomplished students of the master. I must here relate an extraordinary illustration of this: Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, whose precious collection of Whistler's works will be given to the Nation, was examining, at his home, some unfinished trial proofs of Whistler's lithographs. In Mr. Freer's company was an accomplished professional artist. Mr. Freer pointed out to him what he thought to be a slightly false line in one of the prints. "Pooh !" said the artist, "Whistler will never trouble himself to correct a trifle like that." "But I am sure,"

said Mr. Freer, "that Whistler will never allow that line to remain as it now is." When the lithograph was definitely published, the defective line had been corrected by the master, although he had heard not a word about the matter.

It may be an audacious thing for me to venture to say, but I think Whistler made a mistake when, late in life, he adopted the system of cutting off every shred of margin from his proofs-except a little tab which he left in one spot below and which bore his mystical signature in the form of a sort of butterfly. This leaves the composition itself unprotected from any little accidental abrasion of the edges, and the sight of the etching when the margins are all cut away has the same unpleasant effect on me as has the sight of the finger-tips of a person who has the little vice of biting his nails. However, Whistler's taste was very apt to be most refined and correct. His "Propositions," on the small dimensions. to which an etching should be limited, are here reprinted from his famous book, "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies;" and I agree with it all except his pronouncement that the four blank margins of the print should be mercilessly cut

away.

PROPOSITIONS BY MR. WHISTLER

I. That in Art it is criminal to go beyond the means used in its exercise.

II. That the space to be covered should always be in proper relation to the means used for covering it.

III. That in etching, the means used, or the instrument employed, being the finest possible point, the space to be covered should be small in proportion.

IV. That all attempts to overstep the limits insisted upon by such proportions are inartistic thoroughly, and tend to reveal the paucity of the means used, instead of concealing the same, as required by Art in its refinement.

V. That the huge plate, therefore, is an offense-its undertaking an unbecoming display of determination and ignorance-its accomplishment a triumph of unthinking earnestness and uncontrollable energy-endowments of the "duffer."

VI. That the custom of "Remarque " emanates from the amateur, and reflects his foolish facility beyond the border of his pic ture, thus testifying to his unscientific sense of its dignity.

VII. That it is odious.

VIII. That, indeed, there should be no margin on the proof to receive such "Remarque."

IX. That the habit of margin, again, dates from the outsider, and continues with the ship-taking curious pleasure in the quantity collector in his unreasoning connoisseur

of paper.

X. That, the picture ending where the frame begins, and in the case of etching the white mount being inevitably, because of its color, the frame, the picture thus extends itself irrelevantly through the margin to the

mount.

XI. That wit of this kind would leave six and its gold frame, to delight the purchaser inches of raw canvas between the painting with the quality of the cloth.

Of the illustrations which accompany this article the earliest in order of chronology is "The Forge," a plate done in France in the year 1861, although it was included in the Thames Set. Mr. Wedmore calls the Forge "an audacious dry-point," and Mr. Pennell calls it "a dry-point, excessively rare." The "Old Hungerford Bridge," though not dated, was done about the year 1862. It looks like a very simple little picture, but no man save Whistler could have depicted the scene so truly. The "Weary" is dated 1863. Forextreme delicacy Whistler himself never surpassed it. This dry-point is now very scarce. The three Venetian illustrations, "The Doorway," "San Biagio," and the "Nocturne Palaces," date from about the year 1880. Rajon's excellent portrait of Whistler represents him at about the age of fifty. Finally, the letter written, by Whistler shows us that even a man of genius may be (the slang phrase is the most expressive) hard up. On that occasion the artist sought to obtain the loan of a trifling sum of money, and offered as security his great painted portrait of Thomas Carlyle, the picture which is now the pride of the city of Glasgow.

Knowing, as I do, that The Outlook is widely read by "all sorts and conditions of men " (except the bad ones!), the present article will be read by many people who have not yet acquainted themselves with the technical methods of the etcher-what to expect from the process and what not to expect. To all such readers I would say that they can find a detailed description of the etching process, and of the other processes used by engravers, in The Outlook for November 24, 1906, where, in an article on Sir Seymour Haden (pages 762-763) I have