Show STUDENT LIFE white She appears to stand mysteriously aloof from all suggestion of the world the fragrance of her nature still fresh not yet blighted or destroyed through precocious contact with the world In each of these how Closely are the means related to the significance of the subject of motherhood in the one case of maidenhood in the other How closely related are the grand deep tones of black and grey to the spirit of the first and the purity and freshness of the whites to the spirit of the second it would be impossible to reverse the color schemes In his sketches of children there is always a freshness a charm the master had a love for them and he possessed an understanding of the child nature such as few men have had Whistler’s children are never little men and women they are real children with all the innocence and ingenuousness of childhood apparent in every part He suggests their hopes their interests their aspira( )ftentimes tions in his rambles be would happen upon a little dirty-face- d tot which appealed to him and taking the little one by the hand they would trot off together to ask the mother’s permission for a sitting and he would chatter to the little waif in a most charming intimate way about his work “Xow” he would say “We are going to do great things together ” and the child gazing up at him with perfect confidence seemed to understand When the little one ‘left 39 the studio she went away laden with toys There is a picture of one of these little street urchins which he calls The Little Lady Sophie of Soho A little gutter-snip- e picked up in the slums a child of untoward chances dwelling in an unsavory district of a great city There is a pitiful tenderness in the face surrounded by a tangle of as it peers out at us from the mystery of the dim dark background The master has gone beneath the surface and shown a tenderness of spiritual insight He has not emphasized what she was he has seen what she might have been and spied within her little tarnished soul a flicker of pure flame There is in it a touch of irony a mingling of pity and mockery it is suggestive of the cry of why such things must be and whither they tend This is an example of the doctrine Whistler continually preached the beauty existing in every day life in all its different grades and phases in the humblest In objects in the lowest forms th esc child portraits these fragmentary sketches of slum life he has shown us its beauty and its pathos To those who knew Whistler only as he appeared before the public this may seem strange In his attitude toward the world he was apparently a Beau Brummel a clever elegant dandy a poseur a seeker for notoriety Constantly quarreling with critics and writers he was arrogant egotistical cynical sarcastic possessed the sparkling bril- elf-loc- ks |