human
He was popular with the children, and delighted in music, though he was not too critical, for he was known to call the passing hurdy-gurdy into his garden and have it ground under his windows. Occasionally the brother (Greaves) played, so that Whistler might dance. He was always full of drolleries and fun. He would imitate a man sawing, or two men fighting at the door, so cleverly that his brother never ceased to be astonished when he walked into the room alone and unhurt. He delighted in American mechanical toys and his house was full of Japanese dolls. One great doll, dressed like a man, he would take with him not only to Greaves, but to dinners at the Little Holland House, where the Princess then lived, and to other houses, where he put it through amazing performances. Many notes are quoted from the writings of his associates. Here are some of the most interesting of them: Mr. Luke Ionides writes:
gpt
He was a great favourite among us all, and also among the grisettes we used to meet at the gardens where dancing went on. I remember one especially, they called her the tigress. She seemed madly in love with Jimmie and would not allow any other woman to talk to him when she was present. She sat for him several times with her curly hair down her back. She had a good voice and I have often thought she suggested 'Trilby' to Du Maurier. One time in a rage she tore up a lot of drawings, when Whistler came home and saw them piled high on the table, he wept.
human
Taffy, writes:
gpt
It was in 1857-8 that I knew Whistler, and a most amusing and eccentric fellow he was, with his long black thick curly hair and large felt hat with a broad black ribbon around it. I remember on the wall was a representation of him, I believe done by Du Maurier, a sketch of him, then a fainter one and then finally an interrogation--very clever it was and very much like the original. In those days he did not work hard.
human
Whistler was never wholly one of us,