ON the night of Friday 20th February 1885 the Lancashire wallpaper magnate John Gerald Potter occupied the first two rows of the Princes Hall in London with his family party of ten to hear James McNeill Whistler deliver the 'Ten O'Clock' lecture (Fig.1). By this date Potter owned several important paintings by the artist, including The Little White Girl: Symphony in White No II (YMSM 52; Fig.9) and Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Cremorne Lights (YMSM 115; Fig.2), both now in the Tate Gallery. Potter's longstanding friendship with the Whistler family was outlined in the first part of this article, which described the cultural and personal circum- stances that brought the young Whistler into contact with the society of industrial Lancashire. This second part explores the career of John Gerald Potter (Fig.3), and sug- gests some reasons for the mutual regard between the artist and his industrial patrons, documenting the purchase of Whistlers not only by Potter but also by his brother-in-law, Alfred Chapman (Fig.4) who, like Whistler's father, was an engineer, and who became a major collector of the artist's work.

YMSM 115; Fig.2), both now in the Tate Gallery. Potter's longstanding friendship with the Whistler family was outlined in the first part of this article, which described the cultural and personal circum- stances that brought the young Whistler into contact with the society of industrial Lancashire. This second part explores the career of John Gerald Potter (Fig.3), and sug- gests some reasons for the mutual regard between the artist and his industrial patrons, documenting the purchase of Whistlers not only by Potter but also by his brother-in-law, Alfred Chapman (Fig.4) who, like Whistler's father, was an engineer, and who became a major collector of the artist's work.

JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER'S irascibility and the apparent relish with which he 'completely rid' himself of 'that abomi- nation- the "friend"!' are well known.'A group of recently discovered letters from the painter to his good friend John Chandler Bancroft of Boston illuminates just such an episode, involving the sale of four of Whistler's most impor- tant paintings: Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, in the Freer Gallery of Art; The Last of Old Westminster, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Battersea Reach, in the Corcoran Gallery of Art; and Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville (called Sea and Sand by the artist), in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Figs. 19-22). It caused Whistler to lose the friendship of both Bancroft andJohn Cavafy, the son of his early patron, G.J. Cavafy. Only the eventual buyer of the pictures, E.G. Kennedy, an agent for a New York gallery, escaped Whistler's wrath.

by the artist), in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Figs. 19-22). It caused Whistler to lose the friendship of both Bancroft andJohn Cavafy, the son of his early patron, G.J. Cavafy. Only the eventual buyer of the pictures, E.G. Kennedy, an agent for a New York gallery, escaped Whistler's wrath.

IN Whistler's 'Ten O'Clock' lecture of 1885, the primal work of art is not a picture but a pot. In the beginning was a gourd, he said, which the first artist painted with 'quaint patterns'. In time, others joined him and began to fashion its form in clay but 'the first vase was born, in beautiful proportion', only when the artists learned to overcome 'the slovenly suggestion of Nature'. Art emerged from collective creativity: the original artist could not achieve alone the imaginative leap from gourd to vase, or from an object modelled on nature to one with the beauty of art. The parable recalls a critical period in Whistler's own career, when a community of aesthetes assisted his escape from realism. The Lange Lijzen of the Six Marks (Fig.24) and La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine (Fig.26), both painted between 1863 and 1865, announce Whistler's ambition to reform his art in the image of porcelain- to live up, as it were, to his own blue china.

(Fig.26), both painted between 1863 and 1865, announce Whistler's ambition to reform his art in the image of porcelain- to live up, as it were, to his own blue china.

IT is particularly appropriate to begin a discussion of Whistler's techniques with an examination of surviving palettes: Whistler laid great emphasis on the importance of the palette, its arrange- ment, and its place in working out the colour harmonies in a com- position before the brush even approached the canvas. At the end of his life, he taught students in the 'Academie Carmen' to lay out and mix paint, and inspected the progress of the palettes, rather than the canvas, when he examined students' work. Whistler's prescribed palette had pure tube colours on the top row: Prussian blue, cobalt blue, raw umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, a large blob of lead white, vermilion, Venetian red, Indian red and black, arranged from left to right. Selected colours were then mixed in a continuous gradation below for the predominant tones of the composition in hand, shading through to the darkest paint at the outer edges. Flesh paint was mixed on the right. Mortimer Menpes describes a similar palette, with lemon yellow and cadmium yellow placed near the yellow ochre, and rose mad- der placed near the Indian and Venetian reds.

PAINTING a nocturne provided Whistler with a number of techni- cal problems. The Pennells describe the initial process as follows:

His method was to go out at night, and all his pupils or follow- ers agree on this, stand before his subject and look at it, then turn his back on it and repeat to whoever was with him the arrangement, the scheme of colour, and as much of the detail as he wanted. The listener corrected errors when they occurred, and, after Whistler had looked long enough, he went to bed with nothing in his head but his subject. The next morning, if he could see upon the untouched canvas the completed picture, he painted it; if not, he passed another night looking at the subject.

oN 28th September 1897 a brief note appeared in The St James Gazette: 'Mr Whistler would appear to be the last person who would need to be run 8by a "syndicate", especially now that his works are in such request and commissions more than he can accept pour in upon him, but it is rumoured that such a body, call- ing itself the "Whistler Syndicate", has been formed among his admirers for the acquisition and sale of his works'. This snippet was almost certainly planted by Whistler himself, ever ready to make use of the press to his own advantage. Indeed, among the Pennell papers in the Library of Congress there is a draft of such an announcement: 'The latest item in the Art World is [to] the effect that Mr Whistler has been approached by a syndicate with the understanding that all his work in the country shall pass through their hands only and an agreement has been come to, and we understand there is about to be opened a most exclusive & recherche gallery in the neighbourhood of Manchester Sq devoted entirely [to] Whistlerian Art'

: 'Mr Whistler would appear to be the last person who would need to be run 8by a "syndicate", especially now that his works are in such request and commissions more than he can accept pour in upon him, but it is rumoured that such a body, call- ing itself the "Whistler Syndicate", has been formed among his admirers for the acquisition and sale of his works'. This snippet was almost certainly planted by Whistler himself, ever ready to make use of the press to his own advantage. Indeed, among the Pennell papers in the Library of Congress there is a draft of such an announcement: 'The latest item in the Art World is [to] the effect that Mr Whistler has been approached by a syndicate with the understanding that all his work in the country shall pass through their hands only and an agreement has been come to, and we understand there is about to be opened a most exclusive & recherche gallery in the neighbourhood of Manchester Sq devoted entirely [to] Whistlerian Art'

ON 19th April Hans Mielke died in Berlin. Only in his fifties, this serious scholar, dear friend and colleague left us far too early. For many, he had shaped the image of the Berlin-Dahlem Kupfer- stichkabinett, where he was an unpretentious and friendly host. What struck me most, from the very beginning of our friendship, was his great respect for artists and for their work as creations of the mind - not only in the field of prints and drawings but also in the realm of music and literature. It was an inspiring experience to discuss with him the quality and character of works of art, and to share the emotions they arouse. The reverse side of this sensibility was his acute awareness of the horrors history had produced, not least during his own lifetime, for he had spent his early youth in war-torn Berlin. It was wonderful to share his elation over the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

THE tragically premature death of Fabrizio Mancinelli on 29th May this year, at the age of 53, is an irreparable loss for those who knew him. Over the last twenty years, since he succeeded Redig de Campos as head of the Reparto per l'arte bizantina, medioevale e moderna at the Vatican Museums and its restoration work, ever increasing numbers of scholars and students had come to look to him as a unique source of practical help and informed discussion. Born at Ronchi, near Massa, in 1940, he began his own studies as medievalist in Milan, and it was there that he had undertaken a long and specialised course on the history of fresco painting. His interests never narrowed and he could, as a consequence, bring his experience to bear on a very wide range of art-historical issues. Somehow, he always contrived to find the time to discuss them, even when an already heavy work-load assumed quite frightening proportions after the cleaning of Michelangelo's lunettes in the Sistine Chapel was set in train in 1980.

at the Vatican Museums and its restoration work, ever increasing numbers of scholars and students had come to look to him as a unique source of practical help and informed discussion. Born at Ronchi, near Massa, in 1940, he began his own studies as medievalist in Milan, and it was there that he had undertaken a long and specialised course on the history of fresco painting. His interests never narrowed and he could, as a consequence, bring his experience to bear on a very wide range of art-historical issues. Somehow, he always contrived to find the time to discuss them, even when an already heavy work-load assumed quite frightening proportions after the cleaning of Michelangelo's lunettes in the Sistine Chapel was set in train in 1980.