The Art Critic of the “Times”
“Sans rancune,” by all means, my dear Whistler; but you should not have quoted from my article, of June 6th, 1874, Mr. Tom Taylor’s acknowledgment of presentation copy of Mr. Whistler’s “Art and Art Critics,” with “Sans rancune” inscribed upon fly-leaf by the author. on Velasquez, in such a way as to give exactly the opposite impression to that which the article, taken as a whole, conveys.
I appreciate and admire Velasquez as entirely, and allow me to say, as intelligently, as yourself. I have probably seen and studied more of his work than you have. And I maintain that the article you have garbled in your quotation gives a fair and adequate account of the The World, Jan. 15, 1879. picture it deals with—“Las Meninas”—and one which any artist who knows the picture would, in essentials, subscribe to.
God help the artists if ever the criticism of pictures falls into the hands of painters! It would be a case of vivisection all round.
Your pamphlet is a very natural result of your late disagreeable legal experiences, though not a very wise one.
If the critics are not better qualified to deal with the painters than the painter in your pamphlet shows himself qualified to deal with the critics, it will be a bad day for art when the hands that have been trained to the brush lay it aside for the pen.[19] [19]!?
If you had read my article on Velasquez, I cannot but say that you have made an unfair use of it, in quoting a detached sentence, which, read with the context, bears exactly the opposite sense from that you have quoted it as bearing.
This is a bad “throw-off” in the critical line; whether it affect “le premier littérateur venu” or yours always,
TOM TAYLOR.
P.S.—As your attack on my article is public, I reserve to myself the right of giving equal publicity to this letter.
Lavender Sweep,
Jan, 6, 1879.