PRINTS
Whistler, James McNeill
U.S. (1834 - 1903)
Thames Warehouses
1859
Etching on laid paper
3 x 8 in. (7.6 x 20.1 cm) plate mark size; 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (15.9 x 23.5 cm) sheet size
Stimson Collection, gift of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
FA 77.172

Whistler's aim was to make 'a little portrait of a place.' There was a major proposed demolition of these unique places along the Thames, which would permanently alter the flavor and character of London and its working riverbanks. The Thames etchings tend to focus on one area of the compositional while barely suggesting peripheral detail. This radical new way of depicting space appears to have its root in contemporary developments in the science of optics of which Whistler was very aware. -- Label copy for James McNeill Whistler: A Dreamer Apart, Reed Gallery, March 27 - June 15, 1990.