Perhaps this very
preference in them creates a prejudice against the man who does not
share it, and so makes them sceptical of his power. Anyhow, if
Disraeli had been unable to express himself through the medium of
political life, Disraeli's novels would long ago have had the due
which the expert is just beginning to give them. Had Rossetti not been
primarily a poet, the expert in painting would have acquired long ago
his present penetration into the peculiar value of Rossetti's
painting. Likewise, if Whistler had never painted a picture, and, even
so, had written no more than he actually did write, this essay in
appreciation would have been forestalled again and again. As it is, I
am a sort of herald. And, however loudly I shall blow my trumpet, not
many people will believe my message. For many years to come, it will
be the fashion among literary critics to pooh-pooh Whistler, the
writer, as an amateur. For Whistler was primarily a painter--not less
than was Rossetti primarily a poet, and Disraeli a statesman. And he
will not live down quicklier than they the taunt of amateurishness in
his secondary art. Nevertheless, I will, for my own pleasure, blow the
trumpet.
I grant you, Whistler was an amateur. But you do not dispose of a man
by proving him to be an amateur.
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