It has been said of James McNeill Whistler that “he held truly it is the province of art to interpret—not to imitate.' He attempted to avoid, in an art which in its primary and most elementary functions at the least, is a representative one, everything which could fall under the head of realism or mere reproduction; just as many composers, in an art which is primarily emotional, attempt to bring into being a reproduction of matters not necessarily or usually productive of emotional feeling.