| Show STUDENT LIFE strength its delicacy its beautiful refinement possessed the splendor of an old and faded Gobelin tapes- try iut it is particularly the charac- ter of the warp the expression of his own individuality which is of paramount interest to us Ilis art is distinctly subjective it is above all a statement of personality itself a curious mingling of aristocratic hauteur and spiritual sensibilitv irresistibly original at once fanciful and penetrating nervous and serene It is not the facts of nature which appealed to Whistler but rather their effects upon the spirit 37 cance the suggestion of beauty which facts yield to the imagination that he was constantly striving to interpret in his art In order properly to express a finality so immaterial he has been obliged at times to restrain from giving form a too distinct or tangible shape enveloping it in a shrouded light representing it as a concord of colored masses preferring delicate hues and soft accentuations aiming by all known means to spiritualize matter It is the elusive quality in his work which gives it pungency of suggestion and enduring interest and relates it so closely to music for music is rich with suggestion to the mind : it conveys no clear-cdirect stimulates but thought variously different minds to feel after something which is partly reducible to verbal expressions and partly not much of it not allowing for explanations in words Xotes of music and notes of color both appeal directly to the emotions and the arrangements of a color scheme so that it conveys the suggestion of joy peace sorrow or despair is known by the term orchestration of color It was the realization of this close affinity existing between music and painting which caused Whistler to state that painting is simply visual music is the reason why he gave his own works musical terms for titles calling them symphonies arrangements notes etc aiming to retain of the color only that which is transient subtle musical There is a ut the or innermost signffi-canc- e of the subject the dream or spirit world of which the actual is the solid basis It was this signifi essence |
