/98 1>R0CEED1NGS OF SECTION 1. 



order to paint nudes, a branch of art with which he had not 

 the slightest sympathy, and in which he consequently failed. 

 Only when turning from his misdirected efforts he allowed 

 himself to be guided by his own special taste, did he achieve 

 anything great. 



With morals the art of painting has, I think, nothing 

 to do. I should doubt indeed whether between any of the 

 arts and what we call morality there is or ever has 

 been the slightest connection. If there were, we might 

 certainly expect to find that the most moral men were the 

 best artists, and the most moral and order-loving peojile the 

 greatest producers and patrons of art. History is emphatic 

 in the assertion that this is not so. Speaking upon this point 

 in that admirable " Ten o'clock Lecture " othis, Mr. Whistler 

 says : — 



" False again, the fabled link between the grandeur of 

 Art and the glories and virtues of the State ; for art fieeds 

 not upon nations, and j^eoples may be wiped from the face 



of the earth. But art is a whimsical 



goddess, and a capricious ; her strong sense of joy tolerates no 

 dulness, and, live we never so spotlessly, still may she turn 

 her back upon us, as from time immemorial she has done 

 upon the Swiss in their mountains. 



"What more worthy people? Whose every Alpine gap 

 yawns with tradition, and is stocked with noble story ; yet, 

 the perverse and scornful one will none of it, and the sons of 

 patriots are left with the clock that turns the mill, and the 

 sudden cuckoo, with difficulty restrained in its box ! 



" For this was Tell a hero ! For this did Gessler die ! " 



In conclusion, it were well to say that the artist should not 

 be daunted by the mistaken estimates which the public form 

 of him or his work. It suffices that he speaks to a few, who 

 will never become a majority. Even if the errors here pointed 

 out should be admitted and swept away, he knows that their 

 places will be filled by views of his aims perhaps even more 

 erroneous. He must be content to live for art and for art's 

 sake only ; and, unmoved by the praise or blame of the 

 amateur or the dilettante, accept for critics none but those 

 whose claim to be heard rests on the safe basis of personal 

 knowledge and experience. 



