Advice to a Young Artist, Pages 5–6

Audio: 

Henry James (1843–1916)
Autograph letter, signed, to Hendrik Christian Andersen, 25 November 1906
Henry James Papers, Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library, University of Virginia; MSS 6251 (46)

Henry James to Hendrik Andersen
Lamb House, Rye, Sussex, November 25th 1906

ever done by them. Stop your multiplication of unsaleable nakednesses for a while & hurl yourself, by every cunning art you can command, into the production of the interesting, the charming, the vendible, the placeable small thing. With your talent, you easily can—& if I were but near you now I should take you by the throat & squeeze it till you howled & make you do my Bust! You ought absolutely to get at Busts, at any cost of ingenuity—for it is fatal for you to go on indefinitely neglecting the Face, never doing one, only adding Belly to Belly—however beautiful—& Bottom

Verso: to Bottom, however sublime.

Transcription: 

A letter from Henry James to Hendrik Andersen
Lamb House, Rye, Sussex. November the 25th, 1906.

Stop your multiplication of unsaleable nakednesses for a while and hurl yourself by every cunning art you can command into the production of the interesting, the charming, the vendible, the placeable small thing. With your talent, you easily can—and if I were but near you now, I should take you by the throat and squeeze it till you howled and make you do my bust! You ought absolutely to get at busts at any cost of ingenuity—for it is fatal for you to go on indefinitely neglecting the face, never doing one, only adding belly to belly—however beautiful—and bottom to bottom, however sublime.