“ART HAS BECOME FOOLISHLY CONFOUNDED WITH EDUCATION”

WHISTLER, James A. McNeill. Mr. Whistler's "Ten O'Clock." London: (Chatto and Windus), 1888. Small quarto, original brown paper wrappers, uncut; [32 pp]. $850.

First edition of Whistler’s famous lecture on art, the copy formerly belonging to decorative artist and designer Lewis Foreman Day, with his signature and hand-drawn decorative design on the front wrapper.

"Few painters have exercised a deeper or wider influence over their contemporaries than Whistler. All that is good in real impressionism sprang originally from his teaching and example, and even now no one has equalled the unity and repose of his best works… He was at once capable of the deepest affection and so thin-skinned that he would allow a slight to cancel a long-standing friendship. He had an abnormally keen eye for provocation. He was eager to propagate true ideas about art, but he resented their existence in anyone but himself. Speaking broadly, his ambition was to be acknowledged as a sort of æsthetic dictator. Nothing would have satisfied him short of being accepted as both the greatest painter and the official figurehead of art" (DNB). Decorative artist Foreman took a "special interest in stained glass, gradually acquiring a wide reputation as a designer for textiles, pottery, carpets, wall-papers, and many other branches of manufacture. His designs were always carefully adapted to the material in which they were to be carried out, and to the processes of manufacture which had to be employed. He belonged to the same school of art-craftsmen as William Morris and Walter Crane, and his influence on contemporary ornament, if not so fully recognized as that of those two artists, was considerable. Many of the best-known designers of his day were taught by him" (DNB). "Ten O'Clock" was first presented as a lecture in 1885. Early dealer description tipped in to inside of rear wrapper.

Interior fine; mild edge wear to paper wrappers. A near-fine copy with an exceptional provenance.