Whistlers Mother etc.,

James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903) Painter, wit
His ability to liven up things was apparent even when he was young. His individuality like many of his singular gifts was not what what endeared him to the West Point culture.
During a history quiz the cadet Whistler was asked the date of the Battle of Buena Vista-an engagement in Mexico that redounded to the glory of West Point officers and he did not know.
“What?”,said the instructor,”suppose you were to go out to dinner and the company began to talk of the Mexican War and you a West Point man, were asked the date of the battle, what do you do?”
“Do?”Whistler asked astounded,”why I’d refuse to associate with people who could talk of such things at dinner.”
140.
As a cadet in the West Point one of his class assignments was to draw a bridge and his instructor going around the class, was struck by Whistler’s design: it was a romantic stone bridge, complete with grassy banks and two small children fishing from it. He ordered Whistler to get those children off the bridge. ”This is an engineering exercise.”he said.
Whistler did as he was told but had them fishing from the bank instead. His instructor cried,”I said remove those children! Get them entirely out of the picture!”
The artist in him was not to be curbed. In the third version which he submitted he had two small tombstones in the grass besides the stream.
141.
After his three years stint at the West Point, he was dismissed for having run up 218 demerits much more than the allowable limit.
However he had the reason for his expulsion changed as years went by. While chatting with some friends once he recalled the fateful event as follws.
At a Chemistry examination, he said , he was questioned of the properties of the carbon-like element silicon. Whistler asserted it was a gas. Upon which his examiner dismissed him saying, ”That’ll do Mr.Whistler.” Then with a sigh he added,”Had silicon been a gas, I would have been a major-general.”
142.
Leaving his native America for good in 1855, he plunged happily into the bohemian artistic life of Paris, sustained by a small allowance from home. In Latin Quarter, he was soon to make a name for himself. When he could not afford sketch paper he would stroll along the bookstalls along the Seine and quietly tear off the blank leaves;or when he lacked formal footwear for a party he would prowl his hotel hallway, where hotel guests would have left their shoes to be shined, outside their doors. He would borrow a pair that fitted him and have his night out.
He would have usually run through his allowance some ten days or so befor his next allowance was due and he managed hocking every item he could, including his washstand in his room. When his money arrived he wined and dined his friends blowing the money as best as he could.
143.
His story telling has never been bettered in his time with the exception of a few, certainly Wilde was one, and he told stories in his inimitable style as the Irish wit had his. Whistler had a favoutite one about a hungry Latin Quarter student which of course in his retelling had him take his place. According to his version his landlady has been serving him fish too often. So the artist baited a hook made from a bent pin, lowered it into the landlady’s fishbowl kept on the window cill. Having caught the fishes he fried them and returned to the bowl with the note,’Madame, you have cooked so many fish for me that I have ventured to cook some for you.’
At this point Whistler would add: ‘She was cured. She gave me no more fish.’Then while the company laughed he would add the punchline,’she gave me notice instead.’
144
His masterpiece was his portrait of his mother, which was at first rejected by the Royal Academy. The work was titled:’Arrangement in Grey and Black #1(The Artist’s Mother) The first part of the title puzzled the public. He defended himself thus:’To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the picture?’
He didn’t think it odd at all to think of his mother in terms of the language of art. When one of his friends jokingly wondered,”who would have thought of you having a mother, Jimmy?” the artist replied,”Yes indeed. I have a mother, and a very pretty bit of color she is, I can tell you.”
benny