What “Mr. Whistler Had on His Own Toast”
TO THE EDITOR:
Pall Mall Gazette, Aug. 4, 1891.
Sir,—My letter should have met with no reply at all. It was a statement—authoritative and unanswerable, if there ever were one.
Because of the attention drawn to it, in the press, I felt called upon to advise the Public that one of my own works is condemned by myself. Final this, one would fancy!
That the accidental owners of the Gallery should introduce themselves to the situation, is of a most marked irrelevancy. They come in comme un cheveu sur la soupe, to be removed at once.
The dealer’s business is to buy and sell. In the course of such traffic, these same busy picture bodies, without consulting me, put upon the market a painting that I, the author, intended to efface—and, thanks to your courtesy, I have been enabled to say so effectually in your journal.
All along have I carefully destroyed plates, torn up proofs, and burned canvases, that the truth of the quoted word shall prevail, and that the future collector shall be spared the mortification of cataloguing his pet mistakes.
To destroy, is to remain.
What is commercial irritation beside a clean canvas?
What is a gentlemanly firm in Bond Street beside Eternity?—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Chelsea, August 1, 1891.
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