RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS OF JAMES A. McNEILL WHISTLER [Illustration] RECOLLECTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS OF JAMES A. MCNEILL WHISTLER BY ARTHUR JEROME EDDY AUTHOR OF “DELIGHT: THE SOUL OF ART,” ETC. [Illustration] PHILADELPHIA _&_ LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Published November, 1903 _Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S. A._ _To L. O. E._ _This Sixteenth Day of September Nineteen Hundred and Three_ [Illustration] FOREWORD [Illustration: text decoration] Most of what is contained herein has been collected from time to time within the past ten years and jotted down for use in certain lectures on Whistler and his art. The lectures were, as is this book, a tribute to the great painter. The reminiscences are mostly personal. Many of the anecdotes--though perhaps equally familiar to others--were had from the artist’s own lips. The views concerning his art, whether right or wrong, were formed while watching him at work day after day, and after many interviews in which, now and then, he would speak plainly concerning art. At the same time not so much as a thought must be attributed to him unless expressly quoted. The biographical data--just sufficient to furnish a connecting thread and aid in the appreciation--have been gathered from casual sources, and are, no doubt, subject to incidental corrections. Only when a duly authorized “life and letters” is published by those who have access to the material that must exist will the great artist be known by the world as he really was--a profoundly earnest, serious, loving, and lovable man. Meanwhile, those who believe in his art must--like the writer--speak their convictions for what they are worth. CONTENTS [Illustration: text decoration] I PAGE Why he never Returned to America--Tariff on Art--South America--Valparaiso 15 II A Family of Soldiers--Grandfather founded Chicago--Birth--St. Petersburg--West Point--Coast Survey--His Military Spirit 25 III