The Pot-Boiler

The Pot-Boiler by Edith Wharton

In Ned Stanwell's shabby studio, one December morning the fashionable dealer Shepson pokes through the young painter's canvases and offers scorn for everything except a satirical skit Stanwell once painted of a music-hall "star," Gladys Glyde, in the syrupy manner of Mungold, the successful society portraitist. Mrs. Archer Millington, tired of being "done" like everyone else by Mungold, wants Stanwell — the man who painted Gladys Glyde — to paint her instead, in the same flattering style. Stanwell mocks the offer but is drawn by the money. Across the landing lives Caspar Arran, a poor, asthmatic, fiercely idealistic sculptor, and his sister Kate, who keeps house for him and reveres his artistic integrity absolutely. Caspar rails against compromise, scorns Mungold as an apostate, and refuses an order to sculpt decorative Cupids for Mrs. Millington's new ballroom (a commission arranged through Mungold, who has quietly fallen in love with Kate). Stanwell, who loves Kate, is caught between his affection for the Arrans' uncompromising creed and his own pragmatic, versatile talent, which lets him paint in anyone's style. A doctor treating Caspar tells Stanwell privately that the sculptor isn't failing from cold or poverty but from wounded vanity — he is starving for recognition his stoic pose won't let him admit wanting. Within months two orders transform the building's fortunes: Stanwell paints Mrs. Millington's portrait, and Caspar's large rejected allegorical group is unexpectedly bought — through Shepson, anonymously — for placement on a public building in America. Caspar, paid in advance, is triumphant, casting himself as living proof that artistic integrity is rewarded, and lectures Stanwell on never compromising. But when Caspar and Kate see Stanwell's finished, flattering portrait of Mrs. Millington on exhibition, Caspar denounces him ("Mungold will have to look to his laurels"), and Kate looks stricken. Stanwell, prosperous now, spends on the Arrans' behalf, hosting them at a seaside cottage for six weeks and helping support ailing Caspar, though he stops taking new commissions himself, unable to settle to further "pot-boiling" work despite the dealer Shepson's exasperated urging that he capitalize on his success (an unfinished commissioned portrait of Mrs. Van Orley sits abandoned on his easel). Caspar's health again declines under the strain of turning his group into marble and from receiving no further orders, and Kate confides to Stanwell, on a walk in the Park, her fear that recognition is coming too late for her brother. Stanwell then proposes to Kate, offering to use his earnings to support her and Caspar. Kate refuses, telling him she cannot accept, because he has "sold his talent" and knows it, sacrificing his convictions for money — unlike Mungold, who paints badly only because it's the best he can do, not as a compromise. She then reveals she has agreed to marry Mungold, reasoning that money earned in good faith, without prostituted artistic conscience, is acceptable, whereas Stanwell's is not. Stanwell returns home, writes to Shepson refusing the Van Orley commission and all further orders, and sits down before his abandoned, unfinished portrait head of Kate Arran with a grim smile — the text ends here.

By Edith Wharton · First published 1923 · Genre: Satire, Comedy, Drama · 5 chapters · 12,546 words

First lines

The studio faced north, looking out over a dismal reach of roofs and chimneys, and rusty fire-escapes hung with heterogeneous garments. A crust of dirty snow covered the level surfaces, and a December sky with more snow in it lowered over them.

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Satire · Social Commentary · Humor · Irony · Literary Criticism · Short Story · Fiction · American Literature · Early 20th Century · New York City · Upper Class · Society

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The Pot-Boiler is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edith Wharton, dated 1923 CE.

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