‘MR Whistler is, for all I know to the contrary, an artist who has the suffrages of his brother artists, a great painter in the judgment of those who live by painting, but if he had not followed the example of Mr. Oscar Wilde his name would be comparatively unknown. He had the wit to see that genius must in these days wear the crown of eccentricity. . . . He developed a little group of characteristics which pleased the fancy and impressed themselves on the memory of society. First, he cultivated a lock of hair sprouting from amidst his tresses and fashioned after the model of a feather. Next, he substituted for a walking-stick a staff .... exaggerating his American twang [he] invented a species of Yankee dialect hitherto unknown. In this he made it his business to utter grotesque antithetical incoherences, and to ramble on in a maundering monotone from theme to theme. Some clever things he contrived to say, for he is undoubtedly an exceedingly clever man. Concurrently with this he imported a novel mode of painting.

‘The critics were divided in their opinion. Some said it was genius, others said he was a daub. Society (being already prejudiced in favour of the man) now welcomed the artist, and saw in everything which came at long intervals from his studio the transcendent gifts of a great original. . . . From the artist he rose to the oracle. Having induced many gay and lively persons in London society to believe that he was the sole painter of the period who had the slightest notion of the rudiments of art, it occurred to him that he might as well explain from a public platform what these were.