The wharves, warehouses, alehouses, fishermen, and dockworkers of the Thames, along with the river and its many bridges, were important subjects for Whistler. The Old Battersea Bridge was a favorite, and Whistler depicted it frequently in drawings, etchings, lithographs, lithotints, paintings, and even on a wall of his house near the river. The eighteenth-century wood bridge was slated to be replaced with a new stone bridge in the early 1880s, so this print is a kind of memorial. Though the view was taken from life, the composition incorporates features of Japanese woodcuts, including a low vantage point, a high horizon, a framed view, and large empty areas. Whistler was a master printer who constantly experimented with paper, ink, and printing pressure to achieve different effects. Here he left a thin film of ink on the plate to create a sense of the flowing river surface.
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
Details
Artist | James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American, 1834-1903 |
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Title |
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Date | 1879 |
Medium | etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink on antique laid paper |
Dimensions | Sheet (slightly irreg): 12 1/8 × 15 1/8 inches (30.8 × 38.4 cm) Plate: 8 × 11 9/16 inches (20.3 × 29.4 cm) |
Credit Line | Museum Purchase, with funds from Sidney and Robert Katzman Foundation in honor of Dr. Irving Burton's 90th Birthday |
Accession Number | 2008.4 |
Department | Prints, Drawings & Photographs |
Not On View |
Signed, Marks, Inscriptions
Signed | Signed in plate, lower right of image: [Whistler's butterfly monogram; butterfly monogram repeated in pencil, followed by "imp", lower right] |
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Marks | Watermark: [coat of arms of Amsterdam with pendant initials RK] |
Provenance
2008-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)