The Project Gutenberg EBook of Whistler Stories, by Don C. Seitz

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Title: Whistler Stories

Author: Don C. Seitz

Release Date: November 8, 2004 [EBook #13973]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BOOKS BY DON C. SEITZ

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HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

[Illustration: JAMES M'NEILL WHISTLER
From a sketch from life by Rajon. Courtesy of Frederick Keppel.]

WHISTLER STORIES

COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY DON C. SEITZ

AUTHOR OF

"WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT
JAMES ABBOTT McNEILL WHISTLER"

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMXIII

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 1913

TO SHERIDAN FORD,

DISCOVERER OF THE ART OF FOLLY AND OF MANY FOLLIES OF ART

PREFACE

Following the example set by Homer when he "smote his bloomin' lyre,"
as cited by Mr. Kipling, who went "an' took what he'd admire," I have
gleaned the vast volume of Whistler literature and helped myself in
making this compilation. Some few of the anecdotes are first-hand.
Others were garnered by Mr. Ford in the original version of _The
Gentle Art of Making Enemies_. The rest have been published many
times, perhaps. But it seemed desirable to put the tales together
without the distraction of other matter. So here they are.

D.C.S.
Cos Cob, CONN., _July, 1913_.

WHISTLER STORIES

The studios of Chelsea are full of Whistler anecdotes. One tells of a
female model to whom he owed some fifteen shillings for sittings. She
was a Philistine of the Philistines who knew nothing of her patron's
fame and was in no way impressed with his work. One day she told
another artist that