PRINTS
Whistler, James McNeill
U.S. (1834 - 1903)
Black Lion Wharf
1859
Etching with drypoint on Japan tissue paper
6 x 8 7/8 in. (15.7 x 22.6 cm) plate mark size; 8 3/4 x 12 1/8 in. (22.2 x 30.8 cm) sheet size
Stimson Collection, gift of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
FA 77.165

Whistler was directly inspired by the urban landscape of London. He began to work along the Thames in 1859 downstream of London Bridge. The results are some of his best known and most beautiful etchings. Known as The Thames Set, these combined a precision of detail with a largeness of vision. The theme of the river gave a coherence to the whole group. The most revolutionary aspect of the early Thames etchings lies beyond the realm of subject matter and is found in the construction of the picture space itself. While the composition appears to recede, it also reads as a flat two-dimensional pattern and hands in a tense and delicate balance. It is divided into three horizontal zones running parallel to the picture plane representing foreground, using a large figure seated on a wharf. Whistler was particularly proud of this etching and placed it on the wall behind his mother in his famous portrait of her. -- Label copy for James McNeill Whistler: A Dreamer Apart, Reed Gallery, March 27 - June 15, 1990.