ABSTRACT
In a letter to Grace Norton in December 1903,3 James expressed rather pungently a negative view of writers on art:
Such an impassioned dismissal may reflect only a passing mood and is but one aspect of James's long and complex involvement with the visual arts. Although it repeats a sentiment expressed in 1895, to Ariana Curtis, that he was `fearfully tired of pictures and painting. I've spent myself too much on them in the past. I seem to myself to have got all they can give me ± to have seen all I can see & to know it beforehand.'4 But its date places it in the course of the writing of The Golden Bowl which was begun earlier that year and finished in May 1904. It would be crass to ask directly whether such a view qualifies the glory of Mr Verver's project and civilizing mission. There may be just a flash of irritation at the mention of Berenson. Or a serious reservation about the writer of art criticism.
