The Mission of Art
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| Nocturne: Black and Gold — The Falling Rocket (James McNeill Whistler, 1875) |
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| Nocturne: Black and Gold — The Fire Wheel (James McNeill Whistler, 1875) |
Scarcely so much can be said for any other pictures of the modern schools: their eccentricities are almost always in some degree forced; and their imperfections gratuitously, if not impertinently, indulged. For Mr. Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay [founder of Grosvenor Gallery] ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.
John Ruskin
“Letter LXXIX, June, 1877”
from Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain
on the exhibit at Grosvenor Gallery (London, 1877)
☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧
The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter—perfect in its bud as in its bloom—with no reason to explain its presence—no mission to fulfil—a joy to the artist—a delusion to the philanthropist—a puzzle to the botanist—an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.
James McNeill Whistler
“L’Envoie”
from the catalog of Notes—Harmonies—Nocturnes
Dowdeswell Gallery (London, 1884)
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